A court has heard that the parents of a dying newborn boy were told to leave the nurse, who is accused of killing multiple babies.
Lucy Letby, originally from Arran Avenue in Hereford, is charged with the murder of the infant on June 10, 2015, just a few days after he was born prematurely and weighed only 800 grams at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Child C is the second of seven babies that Child C is accused of killing in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
More Reading:Jurors at Manchester Crown Court have been informed that Letby, 32, was designated to care for another baby boy on the night shift of June 13, which was in a room separate from Child C. The Crown claim that Letby was present in intensive care room one when Child C suddenly collapsed at approximately 11.15 p.m., despite the fact that they claim that she had no clear reason to be there. There is still no date for the sentencing date for the Gloucester councillor who ran an illegal puppy breeding farm.
Through a nasogastric tube, she is said to have fatally inserted air into his stomach.
The nursing shift leader who was on duty that night testified to the court that she did not have any concerns about Child C at the beginning of the shift and that his clinical observations were stable.
Due to legal reasons, the nurse cannot be identified. She stated that the baby Letby was tasked with caring for in room three was her primary concern and that, in her opinion, he was the “most poorly baby” on the unit.
She stated,I was concerned because he seemed to be having trouble breathing.
“I asked Lucy to increase his observations from two per hour to one per hour, and I asked Lucy to call the registrar on call to have someone come and review him right away,” Lucy was instructed.
The prosecutor, Simon Driver, asked:Did those instructions get carried out?”
The witness, speaking behind a screen, responded:The registrar did arrive, but I can’t remember whether the observations were increased.
Mr. Driver stated,the very first time I asked?
The nurse stated,I can’t recall.”
The court was told that attempts to revive Child C failed, and the baby and his parents and grandparents were eventually taken to a private family room.
The observer said she relegated one more attendant working, Melanie Taylor, to offer Kid C’s folks a memory enclose which hand and impressions would be gathered.
The witness declared:Because I was still concerned about him, I asked Lucy to concentrate on her designated baby.
However, “I asked Lucy to come out and leave that family with Melanie Taylor,” she said, “but Lucy went into the family room a few times.”
Mr. Driver inquired:Her entering that family room at this time was it a part of her responsibilities?
The witness’s response was:I can’t remember that.
Mr. Driver continued,You told her to focus on (her designated baby) once or multiple times?
The witness declared:several times.”
Mr. Driver inquired:Do you remember the number of times?”
The witness responded, “No.”
In his initial discourse, Ben Myers KC, protecting, said Youngster C was powerless, particularly to disease, and ought to have been at an expert kids’ emergency clinic.
He inquired of the witness:Do you agree that Child C was a newborn with a potential for fragility?
The witness replied, “Yes.”
Mr. Myers stated:Do you agree that, given his size, prematurity, and circumstances, he could have died?
The witness replied, “Yes.”
Letby’s messages from the night shift, in which she claimed that being in room three was “eating me up,” have already been shown to the jury.
She added that she wanted to “get the image out of my head” and go back to room one, where a baby boy, her alleged first victim, had died.
The witness concurred with Mr. Myers when he said that she had told the police that some nurses preferred working in the first intensive care unit.
Mr. Myers inquired of her:Isn’t that a fact of professional life?
The witness replied, “Yes.”
Between June 2015 and June 2016, Letby denies killing seven babies and attempting to kill ten others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Reporting the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, as well as identifying parents or witnesses connected to the children, is prohibited by a court order.
The trial goes on.
