A nurse who acted as Lucy Letby's mentor thought "not again" when a baby collapsed just one night after the infant's twin brother tragically died, a trial heard.
Lucy Letby allegedly injected air into the bloodstream of the newborn Child A shortly after she came on shift on June 8 2015 - just 24 hours after the baby's premature birth. The Crown alleges she used the same method to attack his sister, Child B, on the following night shift.
The infant's twin brother had deteriorated rapidly the evening before and died at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit despite efforts to revive him. A nursing colleague yesterday recalled she was preparing medicines when the monitor alarm sounded at Child B's incubator.
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The nurse, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Manchester Crown Court that Letby was the first to go to the cot and she called her for help. Asked about Child B's appearance, she said: "She looked very ill. She looked very like her brother did the night before. Pale, white, with this purple blotchy discolouration. It was all over her body.
"I just remember thinking 'not again' - to see his sister with the same appearance."
The nurse said she acted as "mentor" to Letby, who first came to the unit as a trainee around 2010/11 while studying at the University of Chester. They became "good friends" as Letby went on to join the unit after she qualified.
The witness, giving evidence screened from the public gallery and defendant, said a breathing tube was inserted and Child B "started to stabilise quite quickly". The nurse added: "(Child A's) deterioration was very sudden and to an unusual degree. Babies can be very poorly quickly but there is usually some indication that is happening. We had no undue concerns.
"To go from that is very unusual and then (Child B) had been good throughout the evening for me...then she became ill very quickly. She deteriorated very quickly and then this discolouration. You never want any baby to die. You want to help them go home to their families. That's always been my goal."
The court heard Child B recovered and was discharged a month later. The witness could not explain why when interviewed by police in 2018 she had not mentioned an unusual discolouration in Child A's appearance but when later questioned about Child B she said her discoloured skin was similar to her brother.
She told Ben Myers, KC, defending, people on the unit were talking at the time about rashes but she was not influenced by anything somebody said. The nurse told the jury she could not remember who administered intravenous fluids to Child A shortly before his collapse but accepted she told police that another nursing colleague had "pressed start" in the process and Letby assisted with checks.
Mr Myers said: "We know the allegations but your experience when working with her was she was highly professional?" The witness replied "yes".
Mr Myers said: "And dedicated to the work she was doing?" The witness again agreed "yes".
Letby denies the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others while she worked at the neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016. A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and dead children allegedly attacked by Letby, and also prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children.
The trial continues.
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