A HEREFORD nurse was allegedly interrupted by the mother of a victim as she attacked the baby in the neo-natal unit of the hospital where she worked.

Lucy Letby, appeared before Manchester Crown Court on October 11 as the prosecution continued their case against her.

The 32-year-old nurse, who is of Arran Avenue, Hereford, grew up in Hereford before studying nursing at the University of Chester.

LATEST: Lucy Letby: Hereford nurse murder trial enters third day

She is accused of murdering seven babies and 15 charges of attempted murder, involving 10 babies, while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

A reporting restriction is in place prohibiting the identification of the 17 alleged victims. They will be referred to as child A to Q.

READ MORE: Lucy Letby: what's happened so far in trial of Hereford nurse accused of murder

Wednesday, October 12

Hereford nurse Lucy Letby attempted to murder child L and child M, twin boys, in similar circumstances to two other twin boys heard earlier in the trial, a court has been told.

Eight months earlier the Crown says Letby, 32, of Arran Avenue, Hereford, murdered child E by injecting air into his bloodstream and attempted to murder his brother, child F, by poisoning him with insulin.

On April 9, 2016 Letby is said to have given an unauthorised dose of insulin to child L and while that attack was underway, turned her attention to child M by administering air into his circulation.

Nicholas Johnson KC, prosecuting, said: “By this time Lucy Letby was supposed only to be working day shifts because the consultants were concerned about the correlation between her presence and unexpected deaths and life-threatening episodes on the night shifts.”

The Crown say the defendant volunteered to work an extra shift on April 9 after she noted child L’s low glucose levels shortly after his birth the previous day.

The prosecutor told the court Lucy Letby had failed to kill child F so decided to increase the dose of insulin administered to child L.

Letby’s explanation was it must have already been in one of the bags he was receiving but the Crown say that was “not a credible possibility”, he added.

Mr Johnson said child M came “close to death” after his heart rate and breathing dropped dramatically without warning but went on to make a speedy recovery.

When Lucy Letby’s home, then in Chester, was searched two years later, medical notes were found detailing how many doses of adrenaline were given to child M during his collapse.

A note of his collapse was also recorded in her diary, the court heard.

Mr Johnson said: “She thought she had taken home the notes by accident and simply noted what had happened in her diary.”

Child N was born at 34 weeks in June 2016. His clinical condition was described as “excellent” although he did have mild haemophilia, a blood disorder.

Mr Johnson said this meant Letby believed, wrongly, that his haemophilia gave her “cover”, allegedly going on to attack him three times.

At 1.05am, the day-old baby suffered a sudden lowering of his blood oxygen levels to life-threatening levels, recovering after emergency assistance from doctors and nurses.

Independent medical experts said the baby’s sudden deterioration was consistent with some kind of “inflicted injury” or receiving an injection of air.

On June 15, Letby is alleged to have made two more attempts to murder child N, who was almost ready to go home.

Letby entered his room and, while a second nurse had her back turned, told her the baby had lost oxygen and immediately assisted with his breathing.

A doctor was unable to put a breathing tube into the child after discovering fresh blood inside his mouth. The medic could not see the back of the child’s throat as it was so swollen.

Around 3pm that day there was a further collapse of child N with his oxygen levels falling to life-threatening levels and a further attempt to insert a breathing tube again found blood in his throat.

He was later transferred to a specialist children’s hospital, where he recovered quickly.

Independent medical experts suggested the blood in child N’s mouth was a result of the “thrusting” of a tube into the back of his throat to inflict injury, the court heard.

The prosecution also told of Child O, one of three triplet brothers, who was allegedly murdered.

Child O was in good condition and made good progress, and was stable up to June 23, when he suffered what medical expert Dr Dewi Evans said was a “remarkable deterioration” and died.

The prosecution is due to complete its outline of the case today (Thursday). The defence is also expected to outline its case the same day.

Tuesday, October 11

The nurse was interrupted by the mother of one of her alleged victims as she attacked her son, Manchester Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Jurors were told that the mother-of-twins did not realise at the time what was going on with her son at the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where nurse Lucy Letby is alleged to have attacked the 17 children.

The mother had gone to visit her prematurely born twin sons, child E and child F, on the evening of August 3 2015, finding E “distressed” and bleeding from the mouth, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said Letby tried to reassure the mother, telling her a registrar would review the youngster’s condition and she should leave the unit.

“‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’. That’s what she told (the mother),” Mr Johnson said.

“We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby.

“We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking."

Child E suffered significant blood loss later in the evening, dying in the early hours of August 4 2015. 

It is alleged Letby made “fraudulent” nursing notes which were “false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks”.

And the day after allegedly murdering child E, Letby is accused of trying to kill his twin brother, child F, by injecting a fluid bag with insulin.

She went on to show a “very unusual interest” in the twins’ family, Mr Johnson said, making numerous social media searches.

Earlier, the court heard Letby allegedly murdered a five-day-old boy, child C, injecting air into the stomach of the tiny, premature child through a nose tube, causing his breathing and heart to stop.

Letby was working the nightshift on June 13 and into the next day, looking after a baby, with child C in the care of another nurse, the court heard.

Child C’s nurse was at a nursing station when the baby’s monitor sounded an alarm at about 11.15pm, the court was told.

When she got to his room, Letby was stood by his incubator.

Despite several hours of resuscitation attempts, child C was pronounced dead at 5.58am on June 14.

It is alleged child D was also murdered by Letby by an injection of air into the baby’s bloodstream.

She responded well to treatment in the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit until she deteriorated and collapsed three times in the early hours of June 22 2015, the court heard.

The court heard Letby sent “many messages” to friends in the wake of child D’s death and the preceding deaths and collapses, one message referring to “an element of fate”.

Letby is also accused of trying to murder child G on three separate occasions in September 2015.

The youngster was born “exceptionally premature” up to four months earlier at a different hospital and weighed just 1lb 2oz.

Transferred to the Countess of Chester, she was “doing well” – reaching September 6, a “significant date” of 100 days since her birth.

But in the early hours of the next day, the Crown says Letby fed her an excessive amount of milk through a nasogastric tube and injected air.

She collapsed and stopped breathing but survived and recovered at another hospital. The jury was told there were two further attempts by Letby to kill the child on her return to the Chester hospital.

One occasion involved a monitor being switched off before being “discovered” by Letby, the court heard.

Child G had been left “severely disabled”.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday morning.

OTHER NEWS:

Monday, October 10

Mr Johnson said child A, the first alleged murder, was attacked at just a day old, on June 8 2015.

He was born early by C-section, but was in good condition. However, just 26 minutes after Letby came on shift, she called doctors to his incubator.

The doctors noted an odd discolouration on the child's skin, which Mr Johnson said became a "hallmark" of some of the cases in which Letby allegedly injected air into the bloodstream of the victim. Child A was pronounced dead 32 minutes later.

Letby is accused of attempting to kill child B, the twin of child A, on June 9, 2015.

Child B required some resuscitation at birth on June 7 but recovered quickly and stabilised but shortly before midnight, it was noted her blood oxygen levels had fallen and that nasal prongs providing additional oxygen had been dislodged.

Her alarm monitor sounded at 12.30am and she was found to be blue, not breathing, and limp. She was resuscitated by doctors.

Mr Johnson said an expert paediatrician, who reviewed the case, had concluded child B was subjected to “some form of sabotage” and she may have been injected with a dose of air.

Mr Johnson said the two children poisoned with insulin, identified as child F and child L, were two baby boys, both born twins; the first born in summer 2015 and the other born in spring 2016.

Both survived due to the skill of medical staff who appreciated low blood sugar can have natural causes.

He said their twin brothers, child E and child M, were both also allegedly attacked by Letby, by having air injected into the bloodstream. One did not survive.

Mr Johnson said the attacks were varied, with babies on other occasions given too much milk.

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