Lucy Letby: Mum praised nurse on day of alleged murder attempt, jury told

A mother told Lucy Letby she was “so pleased” the nurse was caring for her baby on a shift when Ms Letby allegedly tried to kill her, a jury has heard.

Manchester Crown Court was told the baby, known as Child G, vomited and stopped breathing after Ms Letby allegedly overfed her with milk.

It was also alleged the nurse switched off a monitor attached to the infant.

Ms Letby has denied murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others between 2015 and 2016

Prosecutors told the court the two incidents at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit followed a first attempt to murder Child G when Ms Letby was alleged to have overfed the child with milk through a nasogastric tube or injected air into the same tube.

Ms Letby, originally of Hereford, was said to have struck at some point after 02:00 BST on 7 September 2015 while the nurse who was looking after the baby was on a break.

Ms Letby had earlier helped make a banner to mark Child G’s 100th day of life, as the baby was born extremely premature and weighed just more than one pound.

Child G was subsequently transferred to Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital with suspected sepsis, but after recovering, she was moved back to the Countess of Chester on 16 September.

Five days later, a nursing note recorded by Ms Letby stated that Child G “had two large projectile milky vomits” and had “apnoea” for a short period.

The court heard that at about 15:30 BST, Child G was cannulated by doctors and placed on a Masimo monitor, a portable device that continually measures oxygen saturations and heart rate levels.

A nurse, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that shortly after Ms Letby shouted for help from the nursery.

She said she responded and saw Ms Letby using a resuscitator on the infant, who “did not look very well at all”.

“Lucy obviously was concerned and she was responding appropriately,” she said.

The nurse said she noticed that the monitor had been switched off, which was “not normal protocol”, but refuted any suggestion Ms Letby had turned it off.

“I read the prosecution opening speeches online and it suggested that Lucy had switched off the monitor,” she told the court.

“I knew that not to be the case.”

She explained that on that day, two doctors had apologised to her, as they had not switched the monitor back on.

The court later heard text messages Ms Letby sent to a former colleague later that evening.

Ms Letby wrote that Child G “looked rubbish when I took over this morning” and added that the child’s mother “said she hasn’t been herself for a couple of days”.

Her colleague, who cannot be named for legal reasons, noted that Child G had deteriorated on what should have been her due date.

She said she wished “she’d told a registered nurse” about the baby’s condition, to which Ms Letby replied: “It’s hard, isn’t it?

“When mum came in today, she was like ‘oh I’m so pleased you’ve got her’ which I thought was a little strange as I don’t know her that well, but wonder if she just felt reassured to have a nurse,” she wrote.

The jury has previously been told the baby survived but suffered irreversible brain damage and was left with disabilities including quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

The trial continues.

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