Lucy Letby: Hospital executive ignored 3 warnings by pediatrician about baby-killing nurse
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MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM: A jury was told on Tuesday, March 14, that a senior hospital executive allegedly ignored three warnings by a consultant pediatrician that Lucy Letby could have links to multiple deaths in the neonatal unit. Karen Rees, who was a duty executive in urgent care in June 2016, refused to take action against Letby and insisted there was no evidence against the nurse. It was only after the unexplained deaths of a triplet that she was properly investigated.
Stephen Brearey, a pediatric lead at the hospital, told the jury at Manchester Crown Court that he spoke to Rees after he was unable to find any natural cause for the death of Baby O. Letby, he recalled, rejected his suggestion that she take the weekend off "to recover". She did not seem "overly upset". She is now on trial for allegedly murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 more premature babies in the neonatal unit. She has denied the charges.
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'O and P's deaths were particularly distressing'
Brearey said he and some of his colleagues had told the management about their concerns over Letby even before the deaths of Baby O and his fellow twin, Baby P. "I phoned Karen Rees, the duty executive in urgent care, who was familiar with the concerns already," he said. "I explained what had happened and said I didn't want Nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until this was investigated properly. Karen said no to that, and (that) there was no evidence. The crux of the conversation was that I then put to her 'Was she happy to take responsibility for this decision in view of the fact that myself and consultant colleagues would not be happy with Nurse Letby going to work the following day?'."
Brearey continued, saying "She responded 'Yes, she would be happy'. I said 'Would you be happy if something happened to any of the babies the following day?' She said 'Yes', That's where the conversation ended. We had conversations with executives the following week when action was taken."
"All the events in the trial are distressing, but O and P's deaths were particularly distressing for those involved, and deeply so with me, really," Brearey told Philip Astbury, prosecuting. "But there were clearly some elements of the case that I was concerned about. All three triplets were born in such good condition and were following a healthy path towards growing and developing and hopefully going home."
He continued, "The deterioration of O really came out of the blue as far as that was concerned: the fact that we had to intervene initially felt like a surprise, the fact that each time we tried to stabilise and resuscitate him he'd get to a point and deteriorate (again) soon afterwards. The fact that he had two bradycardias and desaturations was exceptionally unusual. The rash was unusual and like nothing I'd seen before or since. We'd excluded many if not all natural causes for him collapsing like this, and I couldn't then, or now, think of a natural cause. I intended to escalate it the following day, but P had already started deteriorating and I was helping with some of his care the following day."
'She believed that Nurse Letby could not have done that'
After Baby P's death, Brearey reportedly attended a debrief with Dr Oliver Rackham, a colleague from Arrowe Park Hospital. "Nurse Letby was present in that debrief. I asked her how she was feeling, and I can remember suggesting to her that she would need the weekend off to recover from this," he said. "She didn't seem overly upset in the debrief, or at all, and told me at the time that she was on shift the next day, a Saturday. I was concerned that this was because we'd already expressed our concerns to senior management about the association between Nurse Letby and the deaths we'd seen on the unit." Brearey then rang Rees and the conversation, mentioned earlier in the article, followed.
As more unexplained events took place, "more suspicion arose," Brearey said. When Ben Myers KC, defending, asked him why he did not approach the police, he said, "You're making this a little more simplistic than it actually was. It's not something anyone wished to consider: considering that a member of your staff is harming babies. Actually, the senior nursing staff on the unit didn't believe this could be Lucy until the point – and beyond – when O and P died. None of us (the paediatricians) wanted to believe it either."
"She believed that Nurse Letby could not have done that," Brearey said of Ms Rees' refusal to take action against Letby. Elaborating, he said, "I had a conversation suggesting she (Letby) should have the weekend off. Karen Rees gave me the impression that she didn't agree and didn't think it was a reasonable request." Letby's trial is set to resume on Wednesday, March 15.