Gina Dennick-Champion, CEO of the Wisconsin Nurses Association, said she believes this is the first case of a nurse in the state being charged with abusing babies.

“I’m sure there’s not a nurse that has heard about this who isn’t going to feel badly for those families and shocked that a professional nurse would be capable of doing that,” Dennick-Champion said.

Probe started Feb. 9

Madison police were called to Meriter on Feb. 9 to investigate two possible child abuse cases involving infants who had been cared for by Kaphaem in Meriter’s 42-bed newborn intensive care unit, or NICU.

The babies had similar hand and arm injuries. Dr. Barbara Knox, a child abuse expert at UW-Madison, said it was “very unlikely” that the injuries were caused by more than one person, and she suspected a Meriter staff member.

Police learned that another infant who had been in the unit months earlier also had injuries that were similar to those seen on the other infants.

Another potential abuse case was identified after reviewing patient records, leading to a review of all of the infants that Kaphaem had cared for during his time in the NICU, where he had been permanently assigned since October 2016.