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A neonatal nurse allegedly interrupted a couple as they tried to comfort their dying baby in the moments before he passed away, the Lucy Letby trial heard today.

The parents of Baby C had been ushered in a room with the infant after medical staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital tried in vain to resuscitate him.

By then his brain had been so starved of oxygen that all the neonatal team could do was give him tiny doses of morphine to shield him from pain.

Today the jury at Manchester Crown Court was read a statement in which the father recalled him and his wife holding him as his life ebbed away.

‘There was nothing more that could be done for him,’ said the father. ‘We just wanted to cuddle him and make him pain-free. We didn’t want to leave him while he was still alive’.

A nurse he thought may have been Letby came in with a ventilated basket. She allegedly told the couple: ‘You’ve said your goodbyes. Do you want me to put him in here?’

‘This comment shocked us,’ admitted the father. 

‘My wife said: ‘He’s not dead yet’. The nurse backed off and tried to defuse the situation, but I couldn’t believe she’d said that’.

Letby, 32, from Hereford, is on trial accused murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and attempting to murder a further ten. She denies all the charges.

Lucy Letby, 32, is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 more. She denies all charges

Lucy Letby, 32, is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 more. She denies all charges

The court heard that Baby C was born by Caesarean section at 3.31pm on June 10, 2015.

After three days he was doing so well that staff were planning to give him his first feed of milk.

But at 11.20pm on June 14 the infant’s mother was woken in the post-natal ward and told to go quickly to the neonatal unit where there was an emergency.

‘I ran down to the unit, where I could see CPR was being performed,’ she said in a statement read to the court.

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‘It was explained that his heart rate had suddenly dropped and he had stopped breathing without any reason. This had been sudden and very unexpected’.

‘They’d given him a very small amount of milk a few minutes before, but they didn’t think this was relevant.

‘I didn’t really take in what was happening, and didn’t take in the severity of the situation, until a nurse came up and asked whether I wanted someone to call a priest.

‘I remember feeling quite shocked and I asked if she thought he was going to die. She responded: “Yes, I think so”.

‘I was surprised that this piece of information came from a nurse rather than a doctor.’

She described the nurse as being in her mid to late 20s with a fair complexion and her hair in a ponytail.

The mother rang her husband and he rushed to the hospital from their home. They waited a further 50 minutes before a priest arrived. Throughout that time medical staff were carrying out CPR on the infant.

‘I was holding him and he was still breathing,’ she said. ‘I was telling them: “He’s breathing, he’s not dead”.

The trial was earlier told how Baby B was three days old when she suffered a sudden collapse in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital on June 10, 2015.

Medics responding to a crash call noted that – just like her brother – she had unusual purple blotches and white patches all over her body.

Dr Sandie Bohin, a leading paediatrician called in by the prosecution, told the jury at Manchester Crown Court that despite being ‘really compromised’ at birth the infant had responded very well.

She stabilised very quickly and only needed support with her breathing.

Letby, 32, was beside her incubator when the infant suddenly stopped breathing at about 12.30am on June 10. Her brother, Baby A, had died on the unit about 28 hours earlier.

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An emergency crash call went out and a colleague working with Letby began resuscitation. She and the alleged killer were joined by other staff and the infant was eventually revived.

Dr Bohin said that having reviewed the case she had been ‘left with a conclusion that this was an air embolus’.

She told Ben Myers, KC, prosecuting, she had come to this view partly because she had excluded what she saw as other possibilities, including infection or cardiac arrhythmia, and partly because of the ‘very florid descriptions’ medical staff had given of changes in the infant’s skin colour.

John and Susan Letby, parents of Lucy Letby, arriving at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, October 21, for their daughter's murder trial

John and Susan Letby, parents of Lucy Letby, arriving at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, October 21, for their daughter’s murder trial

Letby, 32, of Hereford, is on trial for the alleged murders of seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, Cheshire, and the attempted murder of 10 more between 2015 and 2016. She denies all charges

Letby, 32, of Hereford, is on trial for the alleged murders of seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, Cheshire, and the attempted murder of 10 more between 2015 and 2016. She denies all charges

‘To suddenly collapse is not something you see in babies of this gestation. She had nothing that would suggest she was going to suddenly collapse. There were no other warning signs that would herald an imminent collapse’.

Asked whether Baby B might have deteriorated without deliberate harm, she replied: ‘It is a possibility’.

Mr Myers: ‘Air embolus is usually fatal, isn’t it?’

The paediatrician replied: ‘Not always’. She said Baby B may have survived due to differences in the volume or speed of the air she received in comparison to her brother.

Mr Myers turned to the case of Baby A, suggesting that she could not exclude genetic causes to his collapse and death.

She replied: ‘I don’t know any genetic condition that causes a baby to collapse and die within 24 hours of birth’.

Dr Bohin said genetic screening would only be done if staff suspected a baby had a genetic condition. There was no such suspicion in this case.

Letby, of Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder ten others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

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Her trial, which is expected to last six months, continues.

Full indictment against Lucy Letby

Lucy Letby is charged as follows:

Count 1 – Charged with murder of Baby A on June 8, 2015

Count 2 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby B between the June 8, 2015 and June 11, 2015

Count 3 – Charged with murder of Baby C on June 14, 2015

Count 4 – Charged with murder of Baby D on June 22, 2015

Count 5 – Charged with murder of Baby E on August 4, 2015

Count 6 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby F on August 5, 2015

Count 7 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby G on September 7, 2015

Count 8 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby G on September 21, 2015

Count 9 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby G on September 21, 2015

Count 10 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby H on September 26, 2015

Count 11 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby H on September 27, 2015

Count 12 – Charged with murder of Baby I on October 23, 2015

Count 13 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby J on November 27, 2015

Count 14 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby K on February 17, 2015

Count 15 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby L on April 9, 2016

Count 16 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby M on April 9, 2016

Count 17 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby N on June 3, 2016

Count 18 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby N on June 15, 2016

Count 19 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby N on June 15, 2016

Count 20 – Charged with murder of Baby O on June 23, 2016

Count 21 – Charged with murder of Baby P on June 24, 2016

Count 22 – Charged with attempted murder of Baby Q on June 25, 2016

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