The parents of a premature baby testified in court on Thursday that she was left severely disabled after nurse Lucy Letby allegedly attempted to kill her.
Letby, 32, on trial in the UK, is accused of killing seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital during a year-long killing spree between June 2015 and June 2016 .
A Manchester Crown Court jury has heard evidence relating to a child, known as Baby G, whom Letby allegedly tied up to kill on three separate occasions.
VIDEO SHOWS THE ROOMS OF THE NEONATAL UNIT WHERE LUCY LETBY RELEASED THE BABY MURDERED
A court sketch shows Lucy Letby appearing at Warrington Magistrates’ Court via video link, 12 November 2020. The neonatal nurse is accused of killing seven babies and the attempted murder of 10 others.
(SWNS)
Prosecutors say Letby pumped extra milk and air into the baby’s system, causing irreversible brain damage.
The court heard testimony that Baby G was born premature at 23 weeks to six days, weighing just 0.535kg, or just over a pound, at Arrowe Park Hospital before being transferred to the Countess of Chester in August 2015.
She was 100 days old – the equivalent of 38 weeks gestation – when Letby first tried to kill her, which prosecutor Nick Johnson said made her the “youngest and smallest” of 17 babies in the case.
The jury heard how Baby G collapsed at around 2am on September 7, 2015, after Letby started a night shift at the hospital.
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In statements read out in court, the little girl’s parents – who cannot be named for legal reasons – described how they believed she was doing well so far.
UK neonatal nurse Lucy Letby and a stock image of newborn babies
(ER Productions Limited via Getty Images/SWNS)
Her father said he received a call from the hospital that morning to say his daughter was “vomiting” and had been aspirated, but that he needn’t have worried.
He had gone to the hospital with the baby’s mother, he said, and was concerned to learn it was actually “projectile vomiting.”
Baby G was stabilized, but when he saw her later, he knew something was wrong.
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“I knew something had changed,” the father said.
“When she was in the Countess of Chester’s incubator she smiled at the sound of my voice,” she said. “After the vomiting, she was different and she no longer responded to my voice.”
She said an MRI scan later revealed the extent of her brain damage and she now has quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
Countess of Chester Hospital on 3rd July 2018, in Chester, UK.
(Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
The baby also has microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head is smaller than normal, trouble breathing, is visually impaired, requires a feeding tube, and needs around-the-clock care.
Earlier, the jury was told how concerns were raised among medical staff after Baby G began vomiting bullets and struggled to breathe, and his abdomen appeared “distended and discolored.”
The little girl was intubated and moved to another room, according to medical notes, but she remained ill for several hours.
A doctor who was called to the neonatal unit also noted the baby’s “large projectile vomit” and “purple and distended” abdomen, with “blood-stained liquid” from the trachea.
A police officer outside Lucy Letby’s home, July 4, 2018.
(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
After her shift finished, Letby exchanged text messages with a colleague in which she described the child’s collapse as “horrific” and then asked, “Do you have any idea what caused it?”
Baby G was returned to Arrowe Park Hospital in the early hours of 8 September and was well enough the following week to be transferred back to the Countess of Chester.
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Letby then allegedly made two more attempts to kill Baby G on the same day – just five hours apart – on September 21st.
Prosecutor Johnson previously told the jury he suffered from the “same problem” he had on Sept. 7, but this time he followed up on a documented feed from Letby.
She said: “There had been no significant problems with G. She had vomited because she had been given too much milk and air.”
The jury was shown video of a room in the hospital’s neonatal unit where Letby allegedly killed a newborn baby before attempting to kill his twin brother.
(UK Crown Attorney’s Office.)
It hadn’t happened “by accident,” she added, and there were parallels to other children Letby targeted.
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It is assumed that he was the “common denominator” and that the child’s death coincided with his shifts.
Letby, of Hereford, England, denies all 22 charges against her and the trial is expected to last six months.
