Doctor in Let by trial sorry for lack of post-mortem on dead baby boy

A DOCTOR has apologised in court for not “pushing” for a postmortem examination of a baby boy allegedly murdered by nurse Lucy Letby.

Letby, 32, is said to have administered a fatal amount of air into the bloodstream of the infant while he was being cared for in the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The death of the prematureborn twin, referred to as Child E, was the fourth baby murdered by the defendant in a six-week period, according to the prosecution.

During her evidence yesterday, a consultant paediatrician turned from the witness box to Child E’s parents sitting in the public gallery and made her apology.

The doctor was the on-call consultant when Child E deteriorated rapidly late on the evening of August 3 2015 and died in the early hours of the next day.

Jurors heard that necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) was entered as the cause of death on Child E’s death certificate. She told the court she now did not think NEC was the cause of death.

Letby, originally from Hereford, is also accused of attempting to murder Child E’s twin brother, Child F, by poisoning. She denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.