Published: March 3, 2023
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Nurse Lucy Letby's murder trial continues at Manchester Crown Court this morning. We'll be continuing to hear evidence in relation to Child N. Ms Letby is accused of attempting to murder the premature baby boy on three occasions in June 2016. She denies all charges.

Image in tweet by Dan O'Donoghue

Cheshire Police intelligence analyst Kate Tyndall is taking the jury through sequencing evidence for June 15, when the Crown say Ms Letby twice attacked the boy

Ms Letby's nursing notes from June 15 record that Child N was 'pale/mottled' and required oxygen support

Ms Letby's notes state that Child N's parents had been informed and that they were 'understandably upset'

At 14:50 on June 15, Ms Lebty recorded that Child N had a profound desaturation. Notes state: 'Infant became apnoeic with desat to 44%. heart rate 90bpm. Fresh blood noted from mouth'...minutes later a number of senior medics were crash bleeped to attend the child

Nursing notes record that there was difficulty trying to insert an ET tube. With two doctors failing to 'obtain a secure airway'

Two consultants from the anaesthetic team were called to help, but they also had difficulty fitting an ET tube, the nursing notes show.

Court now being shown messages between Ms Letby and colleagues that evening. A doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, asked her if she was okay and told her to cry if she needed to.

Ms Letby responded: 'I’m ok just feel like ive been running around all day and not really achieved anything positive for him….don’t want to cry in front of people here maybe when I’m home'

At the end of her shift, Ms Letby sent a WhatsApp message to a nursing colleague, who also cannot be named, saying: 'Losing the will'

Notes from 19:40 on June 15 show that there was a further 'profound desaturation'. Child N had 'colour loss' and required neopuff breathing support

At 19:48 the baby boy required resuscitation and a number of doses of adrenaline

He eventually stabilised. Ms Letby said in a message to a colleague, who can't be named for legal reasons, that Child N's parents were present and had had the boy christened.

Court has been shown numerous messages between Ms Letby and a doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons. In one of those messages she asks 'What do you think caused his (Child N's) bleed?'

The doctor responds: 'I think there will be a haemangioma or collection. If it was epiglottitis his crp should have been higher because he was starting to become unwell'

Doctor says he's 'optimistic he'll be okay' Ms Letby responds: 'That's brilliant news, thanks for letting me know' - soon after the boy was discharged from Alder Hey hospital

Nursery nurse Jennifer Jones-Key is now in the witness box. She was on a night shift on 14 June 2016 and was Child N's designated nurse along with Neonatal assistant Lisa Walker. They took over Child N's care from Ms Letby, she tells the court there was no concerns on handover

Ms Jones-Key's nursing notes, written retrospectively at 5:51am on 15 June, state that 'just after 1am baby looked very pale mottled and veiny'

She recalls that over that morning Child N 'started to have a few desaturations' and was placed on full monitoring

Ms Jones-Key tells the court that Child N 'settled down' but 'from 7am onwards he was having more desaturations'

The nurse says shortly after 7am, Ms Letby came in to 'say hello'. At that point, she said 'I think the monitor went off, so Lucy went over to see. He went quite pale, I think he’d stopped breathing, I got the neopuff'

She's asked by the prosecutor where Ms Letby was in the room, she doesn't remember. She is asked again why Ms Letby was in the room - 'just to say hello, because we were friends', she says

She doesn't remember any conversation between them. She says the decision was taken to provide respiratory support to Child N . A nursing note from that morning states: 'noted to be mottled all over body and blue in colour and cold to touch'

Ben Myers KC, defending, is now questioning the nurse. He asks if Ms Letby was 'quite a good friend', 'Yes' she responds. He asks, in her opinion, if Ms Letby was a 'capable and hard working nurse', she agrees

Mr Myers asks, in her knowledge, whether Ms Letby only gave 'the highest level of care' to the babies she cared for, she responds 'yes definitely’

Mr Myers is referring back to Child N's desaturation that morning, he says essentially Ms Letby said hello to Ms Jones-Key then responded when the baby boy's monitor went off - Ms Jones-Key agrees

A doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now in the witness box. She was working on June 15. She's taking the court over her notes from that day

The doctor has told the court she remembers the events of that evening and Ms Letby. She said the nurse 'she seemed quite agitated' when a team of specialists arrived from Alder Hey to help with Child N's treatment

'She approached me a few times and said who are these people, who are these people....from working alongside the nurses and doctors at Chester, I felt that it was out of character from what I’d experienced previously in a medical emergency', she said

Report of today’s evidence👇🏻 court now adjourned, back Monday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-...

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