Mother begged doctors... please don’t let my baby die
Jurors hear harrowing evidence at maternity nurse’s murder trial
A MUM pleaded in vain with medics to save her baby, the trial of alleged killer Lucy Letby heard.
Letby, 32, is accused of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Yesterday jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard evidence about her first two alleged victims in June 2015 – twins who suffered sudden collapses in their incubators.
She is said to have fatally injected excess air into the bloodstream of Child A, and then attempted to murder his sister, Child B, the same way.
The parents were watching TV in a side room the night after the twins’ birth when a nurse said: “You need to come quick”, the court heard.
Child A’s mother said: “It felt like hundreds of people were standing over his cot trying to resuscitate him.
“A nurse asked if I was religious and if I wanted them to say a prayer.”
Child A’s grandmother recalled: “The minute I went into that room and saw the baby boy I knew he was gone. He was blue. [Child A’s mother] was sobbing uncontrollably. She said ‘Please don’t let my baby die, please don’t let my baby die’.”
After hearing Child A would have brain damage and other complications if he lived, she said she told her daughter: “You need to let him go.”
Child A’s mother said: “No, carry on”, she said, but eventually relented and “nodded her head” to the doctors to stop chest compressions.
Both Child A’s parents lamented they never had the opportunity to hold their son when he was alive.
The nursing care of Child A had been handed over to Letby shortly before his collapse, the court heard.
Child B collapsed the following night shift when Letby was again on duty, the jury was told.
After the death of Child A, her mother said she did not want Child B “to be out of my sight” but was eventually persuaded to get some rest.Then a nurse told her: “You need to come now.” The mum said: “My heart sank. Not my baby. Not again.”
A nurse told them Child B had stabilised after a “very similar situation” to Child A with a rapid fall in heart rate and oxygen levels, the court heard.
The frantic mum stayed with her daughter through the night and the youngster was “restless as if she was trying to tell me something was wrong”. After her discharge, Child B’s mother said she would stay until the shift change so she knew who was working nights.
The baby was discharged in July 2015 and does not appear to have suffered any adverse consequences.
A court order protects the identities of surviving and dead children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children.
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all the offences said to have been committed between June 2015 and June 2016. The trial continues.