Posted 08 June 2023 - 12:14
Posted 08 June 2023 - 12:14
News
Lucy Letby denies ‘rooting in bin’ for baby’s resuscitation notes
A paper towel used to record the drugs given to Child M, who the nurse is alleged to have attacked, was found during a police search at her home
A paper towel used to record the drugs given to Child M, who the nurse is alleged to have attacked, was found during a police search at her home
Nurse Lucy Letby has denied she ‘hung around’ after a shift to ‘root in a bin’ for a paper towel used to record details of the resuscitation of a baby she allegedly attacked.
The piece of paper was found in a shopping bag under Ms Letby’s bed more than two years later when police arrested her at her home in Chester.
Accused nurse took home resuscitation notes after Child M collapsed
Manchester Crown Court heard the paper towel acted as a live note of drugs given to the baby boy as medics worked for half an hour to save him.
The infant, known as Child M, collapsed in the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit on the afternoon of 8 April 2016. It is alleged Ms Letby had tried to murder him by injecting him with air.
Ms Letby, who is accused of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of ten others between June 2015 and June 2016, denies all charges.
Nearly four hours after Child M was revived, the child’s doctor then ‘meticulously’ recorded in his notes the process, which included administering six doses of adrenaline.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC suggested to Ms Letby ‘You hung around to get your hands on it before you left?’. Ms Letby replied: ‘I stayed late to do the work that still needed doing. I was busy with other babies on the unit.’
When asked, ‘You were hanging around to get your hands on the paper towel?’, Ms Letby replied ‘No'.
Mr Johnson said: ‘To go rooting in the bin for the paper put there by your colleague.’ Ms Letby said: ‘No, I have never rooted in a bin.’
The prosecutor said: ‘Because you sabotaged (Child M) by injecting him with air?’ Ms Letby replied: ‘No, I didn’t.’
Hundreds of handover notes found at nurse’s house
A blood gas printout from Child M, along with several hundred shift handover sheets – some containing names of children Ms Letby is alleged to have targeted – were also found in the police searches.
Ms Letby told the court the documents would ‘come home’ innocently in her uniform pocket at the end of her shifts and that she would ‘collect paper’. She denied they were important to her, though she would shred household bills and bank statements.
Ms Letby allegedly attempted to murder another baby boy, Child N, two months later. The prosecutor accused her of ‘doing something to destabilise’ the infant at the end of a day shift on 14 June.
A nursing colleague later noted Child N was ‘very unsettled’ during the early part of night.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Are you saying this is a coincidence that this happened just after you went off shift?’ Ms Letby replied: ‘Yes.'
Mr Johnson suggested: ‘The reason you had done something to him… was to create the impression that there was a progressing decline that you could take advantage of the next day.’
Ms Letby said: ‘No, that’s not what happened.’
Child’s deterioration at the start of Ms Letby’s shift ‘just back luck’
The court has heard Child N’s incubator alarm sounded and he deteriorated in Ms Letby’s presence within three minutes of her arriving on the unit on the morning of 15 June.
Mr Johnson said: ‘You had set him up to fail at the end of the previous shift and you were making a beeline for him to make it look as if he had got a problem from the night shift.’ She replied: ‘No.'
The prosecutor said: ‘It happened within a minute or two minutes of you arriving in the room?’ Ms Letby said: ‘Yes.’
Mr Johnson said: ‘Just bad luck, is it?’ ‘Yes,’ said Ms Letby.
The trial continues.
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