A doctor who testified during the trial of alleged neonatal nurse Lucy Letby in the UK has said he “cannot think of a natural cause” for the severe projectile vomiting of a baby who was allegedly injured under his care.
Letby, 32, is accused of overfeeding the sick girl, referred to by the court as Child G, while working in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015, according to the BBC.
Letby allegedly murdered seven babies and attempted to murder 10 more during a yearlong killing spree between June 2015 and June 2016. He has denied all 22 charges against him.
Letby allegedly attempted to kill Child G on three separate occasions, the Manchester Crown Court was told. Prosecutors allege that she put more milk and air into the baby’s system, causing irreversible brain damage.
LUCY LETBY TRIAL: FATHER TESTIFIES BABY BECAME SEVERELY DISABLED AFTER NURSE TRIED TO KILL HER
A court sketch shows Lucy Letby appearing at Warrington Magistrates Court via video link on November 12, 2020. The neonatal nurse is accused of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of 10 others.
(SWNS)
Dr. Stephen Breary, who was serving as an on-call consultant in the neonatal unit at the time, testified in court that the baby’s condition had “improved” and was “stable” on September 6, 2015.
Breary told the court that early on September 7, she received an emergency call because the baby had “very large projectile vomit” that ended up on the floor and in a chair next to her crib. The boy collapsed around 2 a.m. that day after Letby had started his night shift at the hospital.
“This was not something I had witnessed before,” Breary said.
Dr Dewi Evans, another medical expert who reviewed the case for the National Crime Agency, testified that such intense vomiting for a small baby was “astonishing”.
UK DOCTOR TESTIFIES IN TRIAL OF LUCY LETBY’S ‘NURSE MURDERER’: ‘NOTHING I’VE SEEN BEFORE OR SINCE’
Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, 32, is alleged to have murdered seven babies and attempted to kill 10 more.
(Credit: SWNS)
“For a baby of [4.4 pounds] vomiting that far is quite remarkable,” he said. “Even more surprising is the vomit that ends up in the chair. That’s several meters away.”
“I don’t remember a baby throwing up on the ground. I don’t remember a baby throwing up at that distance. It was correctly described as extraordinary,” Evans added.
Evans told the court that he believes the only explanation for the baby’s vomiting was that he “had received much more milk” than the approved 1.5 ounces in his feeding tube, and that that “cannot happen accidentally.”
Prosecutor Nick Johnson previously told jurors that she suffered from the “same problem” later that month, following a documented transmission from Letby.
“There were no significant problems with G at all. She had thrown up because she had been given too much milk and air,” he said.
THE VIDEO SHOWS THE ROOMS OF THE NEONATAL UNIT WHERE LUCY LETBY ALLEGEDLY MURDERED THE BABY
The Countess of Chester Hospital on July 3, 2018, in Chester, UK.
(Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
The father of the girl, who was transferred to the Countess of Chester in August 2015 after being born premature at 23 weeks, told the court his daughter was left severely disabled after Letby allegedly tried to kill her.
“When he was in the Countess of Chester incubator, he would smile when he heard my voice,” the father said. “After the vomit, she was different and she didn’t respond to my voice anymore.”
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He said an MRI he later revealed the extent of his brain damage, and he now has quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
Fox News’ Ian Leonard contributed to this report.
