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A court has heard how one of the seven babies allegedly murdered by nurse Lucy Letby showed brief signs of life after a catastrophic collapse but his parents were told by doctors that the chance of him recovering was “remote”.
The newborn boy stopped breathing without warning just days after his premature birth, weighing just 800g, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in June 2015.
The infant, referred to as child C, was allegedly killed by the 32-year-old who is also said to have attempted to murder 10 others at the hospital’s neonatal unit.
Letby, who denies the charges, is said to have caused the collapse of child C at about 11.15pm on 13 June by inserting air into the boy’s stomach via a nasogastric tube.
Jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard medics failed to revive him and that “token resuscitation” took place until the arrival of a Church of England vicar to baptise the boy and a Catholic priest to perform a blessing.
However, signs of life reappeared during the wait for the ministers with “occasional gasps of breathing” and “feeble heart beats” noted as the parents cuddled their son.
An on-call consultant could not explain the “fairly minimal” signs of life but explained to child C’s parents the chance of him recovering was “remote” and the prospect of him not suffering profound brain damage was “extremely remote”.
Palliative care was provided and no further gasps or heartbeat were heard some five hours after the christening and child C was pronounced dead at 5.58am on 14 June, the court heard.
When interviewed about child C, Letby said she found the boy’s death “quite hard because he lived several hours (after the collapse)” and she had “not seen that before”.
The defendant had said she remembered the newborn because he was a small baby.
Letby recalled he deteriorated not long after his first feed by one of the nurses but said she had no involvement in that.
Her only involvement with child C was when she was asked to help with the resuscitation attempt, she told police.
She added she had a “vague recollection” of taking child C’s hand and footprints for a memory box but “couldn’t be certain”.
Detectives also asked her about a conversation in which a nurse was said to have asked child C’s parents if they wanted him to be taken away in a ventilator basket while he was still alive.
She replied she had no recollection of making that comment and questioned whether the parents had said she was the nurse who said that, the court heard.
She said it was “very sad” for the parents.
Read more:
Lucy Letby trial hears how doctor raised concerns but was told ‘not to make a fuss’
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies administering air to child C.
She accepted she made Facebook searches for his parents about 10 hours after their son died but could not remember doing the searches or why.
The court has previously heard Letby messaged a colleague during the night shift of 13 June that it was “eating her up” she was not allocated to work in the intensive care unit (ICU) room just days after the fatal collapse of another baby.
Letby told police she agreed she wanted to go the room “as it can be hard to go back into an ICU environment after having a sick baby so she preferred to go straight back in”.
The trial continues.
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