The Murder of Baby O: How sick nurse Lucy Letby may have killed first born triplet
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MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM: Alleged baby killer Lucy Letby is accused of murdering the first of three triplets with an injection of air into his bloodstream, a jury heard from a medical expert. Dewi Evans, a leading paediatrician, said he found no evidence to suggest the death of Baby O was accidental. The infant died on June 23, 2016, at the Countess of Chester Hospital two days after he and his brothers were born.
Letby is now on trial for allegedly murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 more premature babies in the neonatal unit. However, she has denied the charges. Baby P died the day after Baby O's death, and the other infant survived. After Baby O's death on the neonatal unit, it was found that he had suffered a bleed to his liver.
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'O had been given an injection of air'
"There is no other reason why this baby could have collapsed, and not only collapsed but where resuscitation was unsuccessful. My feeling was that what came first was the liver haematoma, the liver trauma," Evans old the jury at Manchester Crown Court. He added, "We've heard from the local medical team about the resuscitation they carried out, but the chest compressions didn't get near the liver."
Evans said he thought the case was similar to Baby B's, who survived a similar situation. "This was repeating the pattern I'd seen in the second case," he said, according to the Daily Mail. Evans added, "It seemed to me that O had been given an injection of air…and I think the injection of air will have caused the final collapse."
Evans told the prosecuting attorney, Nick Johnson KC, that he had asked cops to bring an expert pathologist to view the evidence "and to ask whether, in the pathologist's view, it was likely to be the result of trauma." When Evans said, "My opinion was that his terminal collapse was consistent with him being the victim of an air embolus. I couldn't see any evidence that this could have been caused accidentally."
The air may have been introduced via a nasogastric tube
The second paediatric expert brought in by Cheshire Police, Dr Sandie Bohin, also said the baby's death happened due to an air embolus. She said she believes the air was introduced via a nasogastric tube. When Ben Myers KC, defending, cross-examined her about the discoloration on Baby O's abdomen, Bohin said such markings were seen in other cases in the trial. "Certainly the medical and nursing personnel are sure they've not seen them before or since, but have said that they were graphic," she added. She said in Baby O's case, it is possible that the air was placed into his nasogastric tube at the time of a feed.
The jury was also recently told hat 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.