A tearful mum begged 'please don't let my baby die' as medics tried to resuscitate him after an alleged attack by nurse Lucy Letby, a jury heard.
Letby, 32, is accused of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others while working in the neo-natal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital. The prosecution has begun introducing evidence at her trial in Manchester Crown Court.
The court has heard her first two alleged victims, named as Child A and Child B for legal reasons, suffered sudden collapses in their incubators during June 2015. Letby was on duty on both occasions.
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The prosecution allege that Ms Letby fatally injected an excess amount of air into the bloodstream of Child A, and then attempted to murder Child B via the same method. Child A's parents were watching television in a side room on the night after his birth when a member of the nursing staff came in and said "You need to come quick", the court heard.
In a witness statement, Child A's mum said: "All I can remember is being wheeled into a room and it felt like hundreds of people were standing over his cot and trying to resuscitate him. A nurse asked if I was religious and if I wanted them to say a prayer."
Child A's grandmother recalled: "The minute I went into that room and saw the baby boy I knew he was gone. He was blue. The room seemed full of medical staff. (Child A's mum) was sobbing uncontrollably at this point. She said 'Please don't let my baby die, please don't let my baby die'.
"(Child A's father) was in shock. He was like a statue and didn't say a word."
She said a consultant told the family that Child A was not responding but her daughter continued to say 'Please don't let him die, please don't let him die'. After they were told that Child A would have brain damage and further complications if he survived, she said she told her daughter: "You need to let him go".
Child A's mum said: "No, carry on", but eventually relented and "simply nodded her head" to the doctors to stop chest compressions.
In his witness statement, read to the court, Child A's dad described saying to his partner "something along the lines of 'We have to let him go, he is not there any more'." Both Child A's parents stated: "One of the things that upset me the most is that I never had the opportunity to hold my son when he was alive."
Later, the jury of eight women and four men was shown a series of messages the defendant exchanged with other staff members, along with activity on her social media accounts. Less than two hours after she finished the shift when Child A died she made a Facebook search for Child A's mum, the court heard.
Later on June 9, before her next shift started, a fellow nurse messaged Letby to say: "Hi Lucy. Hope you are OK?". She responded: "I think we all did everything we possibly could under very difficult and sad circumstances. Haven't had much sleep. Don't really want to see parents but it's got to be done...
"Dad was on the floor crying saying 'please don't take our baby away' when we took him to the mortuary. It's just heart-breaking. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Hopefully have a more positive one tonight."
Hours later, Child B collapsed while Letby was on duty, before the youngster later stabilised and was eventually discharged the following month, the court was told.
Another online search for Child B's mum was made on Letby's Facebook account on the late evening of June 10. Two days later the defendant texted a nurse who had looked after Child A when he was born. Letby wrote: "It was awful. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly just after handover.
"Waiting for post-mortem results. Hopefully they can get to the bottom of it."
Her colleague replied: "It's so terrible. You are not having a great run at the moment. Hopefully we will ind out soon." Letby replied: "I was not supposed to be in either. I took pictures, hand and footprints etc."
The Crown say Letby went on to murder Child C on June 14 and Child D on June 22 2015. On June 25, a third Facebook search for Child A's mum was made by Letby. Five days later Letby messaged a colleague to say that Child B had moved to a recovery room in the unit following her collapse earlier in the month.
Her colleague said: "There's something odd about that night and the other three that went so suddenly." Letby asked: "What do you mean? Odd that we lost three and in different circumstances?" The colleague replied: "Were they that different? Ignore me, I'm speculating."
Letby said: "Well (Child C) was tiny, obviously compromised in utero. (Child D) septic. It's (Child A) I can't get my head round." Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all the offences which are said to have been committed between June 2015 and June 2016.
The trial continues.
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