PROVO, Utah — A NICU nurse at a Provo hospital has been arrested on aggravated child abuse charges after allegedly injuring an infant under his care.
Kaycen Caldwell, 29, was taken into custody Monday after the NICU Medical Director at Utah Valley Hospital asked for an investigation into infant abuse.
According to the arrest documents, a doctor had received photos of the infant's injuries "and stated that the injuries were clearly consistent with squeeze and grab marks from hands." The doctor noted that the bruises came from hands squeezing a part of the body.
The child's grandmother told authorities that she had logged into an app to watch her grandson in the NICU just after 8:30 p.m. on the night of the incident and could tell the baby was crying. The grandmother said the nurse, identified as Caldwell, came over and was being "really rough" with the infant.
During the online session, the grandmother and another witness claimed Caldwell turned the camera away from the infant's crib and saw the crib "shaking." After approximately two minutes, the camera was once again focused on the baby, according to the witnesses.
When the child's parents arrived at the hospital the following day, they claimed to have observed bruising on the infant's arms and abdomen. After tests performed on the child came back normal, the parent's asked Caldwell to be removed from the infant's care team.
Caldwell told authorities that when he found the baby crying, "he couldn't really figure out exactly what was happening," so he performed abdominal massage and other exercises on the child. He denied laying his hands on the infant's arms other than to swaddle the child, and denied moving the app camera focused on the crib.
"The result of Kaycen's conduct was reckless because he was aware of but consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that resulted in serious physical injury to the infant while in his care at a medical facility," the arrest report states.
Caldwell, who has been placed on administrative leave at the hospital, was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Utah County Jail.
"We take the safety and welfare of all our patients very seriously," a statement from the hospital said. "We are aware of these serious accusations and are fully cooperating with investigators in this matter."
