A tearful mother begged medics “Please don’t let my baby die” as they tried to resuscitate him, the trial of alleged killer nurse Lucy Letby has 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.
On Monday, jurors at Manchester Crown Court began to hear evidence about her first two alleged victims in June 2015 – twins who suffered sudden collapses in their incubators.
She is said to have fatally injected an excess amount of air into the bloodstream of Child A, and then attempted to murder his sister, Child B, via the same method.
The parents were watching television in a side room on the night after the twins’ 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 mother 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 mother) 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 mother said “No, carry on”, she said, but eventually she relented and “simply nodded her head” to the doctors to stop chest compressions.
In his witness statement read to the court, Child A’s father said 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 remarked: “One of the things that upset me the most is that I never had the opportunity to hold my son when he was alive.”
The nursing care of Child A had been handed over to Letby shortly before his collapse, the court heard.
Child B collapsed on the following night-shift when Letby was again on duty, the jury was told.
Following the death of Child A, her mother said she was “frantic, anxious and extremely upset” and did not want Child B “to be out of my sight”.
She and her partner were eventually persuaded by nursing staff to get some rest, the court heard.
“We returned to the ward and attempted to watch a film and the next thing I know we were getting woke up by a nurse,” she explained.
“’You need to come now’. My heart sank. Not my baby. Not again.”
They dashed into the neo-natal unit where a nurse told them Child B had stabilised following a “very similar situation” to Child A with a rapid fall in heart rate and oxygen levels, the court was told.
Her skin was also discoloured and mottled, which a consultant said they had never seen before, the jury heard.
She said she was “frantic and terrified” and stayed with Child B throughout the night and the youngster was “restless … as if she was trying to tell me something was wrong”.
Following her own discharge from the Countess of Chester, she explained she would arrive daily at 9am to see Child B, the court heard.
Child B’s mother said she would always stay on until the unit’s shift change so she knew who was working nights.
Her and her partner would then set alarms on their phone at two-hour intervals overnight so they could call the hospital for updates on Child B.
She stated: “I was, and still am, extremely protective of her.”
Child B was discharged in July 2015 and does not appear to have suffered any adverse consequences from her collapse, the court heard.
The twins’ mother had previously been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and was due to have an elective Caesarean section in London under the care of a specialist.
But the week before, she required an emergency Caesarean section at the Countess of Chester following a diagnosis of preeclampsia.
The timing left her “extremely upset”, she stated.
Child B was born at 8.30pm on June 7 and weighed 3lb 11oz – and needed assistance with breathing problems – while Child A followed at 8.31pm and weighed 31b 12oz.
She said that following Child A’s death, she and her partner “searched for a reason why”.
She said she was “furious” when it was suggested to her by a consultant that if Child A’s post-mortem examination was inconclusive then “it may be to do with my blood condition”.
She added that they “asked for answers we never really got”.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and dead children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children.
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all the offences which are said to have been committed between June 2015 and June 2016.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
