Published: December 13, 2022
1
1
8

At Manchester Crown Court again today for the trial of nurse Lucy Letby. Jurors will continue to hear evidence about the collapse(s) of Child G - who the Crown say Ms Letby tried to murder on three occasions in 2015

Medical expert Dr Sandie Bohin is continuing to give evidence today. She tells the court that it was 'extraordinary' for a baby the size of Child G - she was 2kg - to vomit as far as she did. Reminder of yesterday's evidence https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-...

She said: 'She would have had to have exerted a huge amount of force to vomit over the side of the cot and onto the floor and chair…that's surprising given she was only 2kg'

Dr Bohin is taking the court back through Child G's medical notes and spelling out the infant's early feeding history and how that developed. The notes show that through summer 2015 she was gradually improving

Dr Bohin makes the point that medics were considering giving Child G immunisations around the time of her collapse. She said the baby 'must have been well and stable' as medics 'wouldn’t consider giving immunisations unless a baby is absolutely stable'

On the incident of 7 September, Dr Bohin tells the court that Child G 'must at some point have been given an excessive amount of milk to projectile vomit and have a residual 45ml in stomach'

Ben Myers KC, defending, is now questioning Dr Bohin. He is taking the court back over Child G's medical notes from June 2015. Dr Bohin agrees at this time the premature girl was as 'sick as you could possibly be'

Mr Myers is looking notes that she had a discoloured abdomen. Dr Bohin says that at this stage the girl would have weighed just 500g and there would be no subcutaneous fat - so could see blood vessels (hence discolouration normal) riation normal)

We're continuing to view notes on Child G from the first few weeks after her birth. They show she was on steroids (as she was having trouble with ventilation). Bleeding noticed at one point was put down to a 'probable pulmonary haemorrhage'

Dr Bohin notes that Child G had a low platelet count, which could explain the bleeding. She says 'certainly in a baby this fragile' a pulmonary haemorrhage could be lethal - states if it was indeed such a haemorrhage it was 'very mild'

Mr Myers is taking the court through a note from the end of July 2105 which showed a 'significant' desaturation before Child G was due to travel from Arrowe Park to the Countess of Chester.

Dr Bohin agrees that the infant was not well at this stage, 'she was still very young, still very vulnerable and prone to all sorts of complications due to her prematurity'

Mr Myers is making the point that, as an expert witness, Dr Bohin is allowed to hear all the evidence as it is presented to the court. She rejects suggestion that her conclusions have 'come from a dialogue with Dr Evans' (the other medical expert in this case)

Court has just been read a statement from Countess of Chester medical engineer Stuart Eccles. This was on the ventilation equipment at the hospital. Yesterday we heard doctors believed there could have been a problem with a machine as Child G was struggling to breath

Service records show that there was no such issues reported on 7 September 2015. He said the machines on the unit were 'very reliable'

Police intelligence analyst Kate Tyndall is now back in the witness box. She is taking the court through sequencing evidence.

After Child G fell ill, she was transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital where she recovered over a number of days. On 16 September she was transferred back to the Countess of Chester. On 21 September, the Crown say there was second incident involving Ms Letby

Nursing notes recorded by Ms Letby show that at around 10:20 on 21 September Child G had two projectile vomits and went apnoeic for a short period. She suffered brief self-resolving colour loss and her blood saturations fell to 30%

Court being shown text messages between Ms Letby and a former colleague on the evening of 21 September. Ms Letby said Child G 'looked rubbish when I took over this morning then she vomited at 9 and I got her screened...mum said she hasn’t been herself for a couple of days'

A former nursing colleague of Ms Letby, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now in the witness box. She is recalling the events of 21 September

Court told that Child G was cannulated, behind a screen, and placed on a Masimo monitor - a portable device attached to the patient by a sensor that continually measures oxygen saturations and heart rate levels.

After the doctors had gone, but Child G was still screened, the nurse told the court that she heard Ms Letby shouting for help. She said she responded, Ms Letby was using neopuff on the infant - who 'did not look very well at all'

She noticed that the monitor screen was black and had been switched off.

The nurse said this was not normal procedure (for the monitor to be off)

The nurse however has told the court that she asked to review her original statement to police last month - as she said she had seen in the prosecution opening that there was a suggestion Ms Letby had turned the monitor off - she said 'I knew that not to be the case'

She tells the court that on 21 September two doctors came her to apologise, as they had left the screen in situ and not switched the monitor back on

Court has now adjourned. Back tomorrow.

Share this thread

Read on Twitter

View original thread

Navigate thread

1/27