A doctor who saw the infant boy that Lucy Letby is accused of killing claimed he had no issues and that she was “surprised and heartbroken” to learn he had passed away.
Dr Sally Ogden had cared for Baby A, a preterm twin boy, and his sister, Baby B, immediately after their delivery and had no worries for either child’s health.
But Baby A passed away a little over a day later.
Around eight o’clock on June 8, 2015, neo-natal nurse Letby is accused of killing the day-old child by setting up a glucose infusion and injecting air into his bloodstream.
Letby, 32, of Hereford, is charged with killing seven newborns and attempting to kill ten more between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire. She rejects the accusations.
A witness statement from Dr. Ogden, who began working the morning after Baby A, who had been delivered nine weeks early and weighed 3lbs 12oz, died, was read to the Manchester Crown Court jury yesterday.
Dr. Ogden said, “I got a handover from Dr. Rachel Lambie.” She told the team and me that Baby A had passed away in the course of the evening.
“I recall how much this surprised me. It came out of nowhere and was quite disturbing.
‘Baby A shown no indications of distress at any point throughout the day. He was doing OK. I had zero worries about him or his twin sister.
According to testimony given in court, Baby A and Baby B’s mother had a Caesarean section at around 8.30 p.m. on June 7, 2015, after pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy disorder, caused her blood pressure to become dangerously high.
Although both of the twins required assistance with breathing, doctors believed the girl to be the less healthy of the two. However, Baby A rapidly learned to breathe on his own and was deemed “stable” on his first day of life.
The next night, though, he passed out unexpectedly not long after Letby started her night shift.
The first live witness, nurse Melanie Taylor, who also cared for Baby A before turning him over to Letby about 8 o’clock on June 8, testified in the eighth day of the trial on Wednesday.
She testified in court that she and Letby co-signed for the glucose infusion and that she realized Baby A was “deteriorating” while typing up her notes for the day on a computer.
She is said to have had a direct line of sight into the room where Baby A was being nursed.
He began to worsen, Lucy Letby was standing by the incubator, his heart rate and saturations were dropping, she recalled.
Since Lucy was there and he seemed to be in a rather stable state, I first remained there (by the computer). I got up to assist Lucy when I saw he wasn’t getting better from the deterioration.
She added that it was normal for infants on the unit to decline and then swiftly improve, so she had mistakenly believed Baby A was recuperating for a brief period of time.
Ms. Taylor stated she wasn’t positive, but she believed that she sat down at the computer to finish her notes after the glucose infusion had started. When she arrived to Baby A Letby, she said, “he was being given some breaths by a Neo-puff (a face mask used to assist neo-natal resuscitation).”
The efforts to rescue Baby A and his demise, according to Ms. Taylor, were “a bit of a fog.”
I am aware that it dragged on and was long, she said. “I kept hoping he would get better, but he didn’t,” the speaker said.
On June 8, 2015, she had reported for duty at approximately 7:30 a.m. The twins were delivered when I was working the night shift.
Her responsibility that morning was to replace a coworker named Ashleigh Hudson, who had been on the night shift, as Baby A’s assigned nurse.
She remembered Baby A being in Nursery 1’s Incubator 2, the area where workers took care of the youngest, most fragile infants. In Incubator 1, his twin sat next to him.
I had no worries about him since he was stable and receiving CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). One factor was that he went without fluids for a few hours due to line problems, she informed the jurors.
She finished her shift at 8 o’clock when Baby A was still stable. Letby was the nurse she turned over to. But six years later, she couldn’t specifically recall that transfer.
The mother of Baby A reportedly cried out to the doctors, “Please don’t let my baby die,” as they attempted to revive him, according to testimony provided to the court. But it was too late to rescue him.
For a brief while, Baby A seemed to be improving, but Ms Taylor said that it was normal for newborns on the hospital to suffer and then swiftly improve.
The prosecution claims that the circumstances surrounding his twin sister’s breakdown the next night were almost similar. She was successfully revived, and fortunately, she lived.
Ben Myers, KC’s defense attorney, informed the nurse that he would be questioning her on behalf of Letby.
Do you feel that even with the notes it might still be difficult to recall the detail, even giving the police your testimony from last year? he inquired after reminding her of this.
She concurred and said, “It’s because time goes by.” However, I made it clear in my statement if I wasn’t certain.
She acknowledged that she had spent around two and a half years apart from the Countess of Chester before coming back.
Mr. Myers enquired as to whether hospital employees had discussed the incidents presently being examined in Letby’s trial.
Yes, because those were important events that occurred, Nurse Taylor said.
Letby denies trying to kill Baby B and killing Baby A. Instead, she asserts that Baby A’s fall was caused by the unit’s’sub-optimal care.
The court has been informed that Baby A was denied fluids for hours because physicians were preoccupied with other patients while trying twice in vain to insert a cannula into his belly button.
But he received little doses of milk—1 ml—every two hours via a catheter in his nose.
Ahead of the trial, the jury saw texts Letby made to a coworker in which she recounted having a “little breakdown” after the deaths of three infants over the course of three weeks in June.
I had a mini-meltdown last night over what occurred at work,’ she texted.
I just need some alone time with my parents.
According to testimony given in court, Baby B’s accused attacker sent a coworker a message on June 10 asking, “Will you let me know if any change?” during the time Baby B was still healing.
Later, the second nurse sent a message stating that Baby B’s status had not changed.
At 10.08 p.m., when Letby called again, her coworker said that B was “looking extremely fantastic.”
Along with Baby A, she is also accused of killing Baby C, a preterm male, on June 14 and Baby D, a full-term girl, on June 22.
After Baby B’s death and the collapse of his twin sister, she texted a friend to say: “I don’t want to speak about it.” It’s simply been a little difficult the last week or so.
The court was informed that Letby also looked for the parents of the accused victims on Facebook after they passed away.
However, jurors were informed that the nurse conducted several social media searches for the parents of various newborns she cared for at work, not only those who were a part of the trial.
Just hours after Baby A’s fall, Letby repeatedly searched for her mother’s Facebook profile, according to an examination of her internet behavior presented in court.
At the same time, she was receiving consolation from coworkers. Letby told a nurse, “It was horrific. Just after the transfer, he passed away extremely abruptly and violently. not certain why. The coroner has been notified. They are looking at a clotting issue. Really sad.
The coworker replied, referring to the conclusion of her own shift earlier that day: “Oh God, he was doing pretty well when I left.”
Then Letby said, “Just collapsed quite abruptly.” Awful. On Monday, he had a great day, and I took over Monday night.
The coworker expressed regret that Letby was caring for him at the time and said, “I’m sorry that occurred.” You’re not currently having a good run.
I wasn’t meant to be there either, Letby retorted. But regrettably, these things happen.
The experiment, which is planned to run six months, is nearing the conclusion of its third week.
The case is still open.