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Lucy Letby trial: colleagues’ concern over baby’s oxygen levels

Neonatal nurse is accused of attempting to murder baby boy – her last of her 17 alleged victims – by injecting air into his stomach at Countess of Chester Hospital
Nurse Lucy Letby, who denies multiple counts of murder and attempted murder of infants in her care

Neonatal nurse is accused of attempting to murder baby boy – her last of her 17 alleged victims – by injecting air into his stomach at Countess of Chester Hospital

Nurse Lucy Letby, who denies multiple counts of murder and attempted murder of infants in her care
Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby Picture: Shutterstock

Alarms sounded at a baby’s cot minutes after nurse Lucy Letby left the room, the jury in her murder trial heard.

Nursing staff, including Ms Letby, and doctors rushed into nursery two at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit to attend to a baby boy, known as Child Q, just after 9am on 25 June 2016.

The Crown claims Ms Letby had tried to kill the infant – her 17th and final alleged victim – by injecting air into his stomach.

Nurse called for assistance when infant’s saturations dropped

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, nurse Mary Griffith said Ms Letby had asked her to keep an eye on Child Q while she, Ms Letby, went to check on another baby in a different nursery.

Ms Griffith said she had started feeding the baby in her care when she heard an alarm go off at Child Q’s incubator. She told the court: ‘I looked over my shoulder and I noticed his saturations had dropped.’

She told the court she called for help from nursing shift leader Minna Lappalainen, who was at the nurses’ station opposite.

Ms Griffith said the length of time between Ms Letby leaving and the alarm sounding was minutes, but she could not say exactly how many.

Ms Lappalainen was questioned in court about what she saw, as the first person to arrive at Child Q’s incubator. She stated: ‘He had been sick. I turned him on his side and made sure his airway was all right.’

She had noted clear mucus coming from the baby’s mouth and nose, which was suctioned clean. A face mask was then used on Child Q to help pick up his blood oxygen levels, the court heard, and an emergency call was put out for a registrar to attend.

Ms Lappalainen recorded that Child Q’s nasogastric tube was used to aspirate his stomach by ‘Nurse L Letby’.

The court heard the defendant made a separate note of ‘air++ aspirated from tube.’

Child Q recovered from the three-minute episode and was moved to intensive care nursery one after the incident, and Ms Lappalainen took over the care of Ms Letby’s second designated infant.

Child Q’s condition stabilised

Ms Lappalainen agreed with Ben Myers KC, defending, that Child Q stabilised ‘relatively quickly’.

Mr Myers said: ‘And the doctors were called because this was an appropriate thing to do?’

‘Yes,’ said she said.

Mr Myers added: ‘It was not the type of incident where you were overly concerned.’

Ms Lappalainen replied: ‘I was not overly concerned but I wanted him to be checked out.’

She said it was ‘perfectly acceptable’ for nurses to ask a colleague to keep an eye on a baby if they had to leave a nursery.

Lucy Letby, originally from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of ten more between June 2015 and June 2016.

The trial continues.


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