MADISON, WI (WISC/CNN) – A couple believes their daughter may have been a victim of abuse, after learning a nurse was suspended in connection to suspected abuse of newborns at the same hospital where the little girl was born.
Baby Finnley Wipperfurth was born last June at Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI, with a vein of Galen malformation, a rare blood vessel abnormality inside the brain.
She was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit and, as scheduled, transferred to UW Hospital seven hours later. It was there where a mysterious mark was spotted on her back.
"She was born on Monday. On Thursday, a bruise was discovered,” said Pierro Wipperfurth, Finnley’s dad.
Pierro and his wife Heather, the baby’s mother, say they were investigated and cleared by Child Protective Services.
"They didn't look at the bruise and think it was a medical bruise. They called CPS. CPS cleared us. We said, ‘OK, if it wasn't us, it had to be somebody. That leaves who?’" Pierro Wipperfurth said.
For months, that question went unanswered.
Then in February, news broke that a nurse had been suspended and a criminal investigation launched following unexplained injuries inside Meriter’s NICU.
"When we saw the story, I immediately called the police department,” Pierro Wipperfurth said.
According to investigators from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, five newborns at the hospital were found to have injuries ranging from bruises to a skull fracture.
The Wipperfurths believe Finnley is another victim.
"I mean, look at her. She's up against life or death, and you got some predator beating her up,” Pierro Wipperfurth said.
The couple is now trying to figure out if Finnley was in the care of the suspended nurse.
"I mean, you can't even trust the hospital to take care of your kid. It makes me sick to my stomach,” Heather Wipperfurth said.
For now, the Wipperfurths are left asking what so many others want to know.
"How many other children were abused and could've been prevented?" Pierro Wipperfurth said.
Officials say the nurse is still suspended, but no arrests have been made in the case.
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