A doctor who testified during the trial of alleged killer neonatal nurse Lucy Letby in the U.K. said he “can’t think of a natural cause” for the severe projectile vomiting of an infant who was allegedly harmed under her care.
Letby, 32, stands accused of overfeeding the sick baby girl, referred to in court as Child G, while she was working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015, according to the BBC.
Letby allegedly murdered seven infants and attempted to murder 10 more during a year-long killing spree between June 2015 and June 2016. She has denied all 22 of the charges against her.
Letby allegedly tried to kill Child G on three separate occasions, the Manchester Crown Court was told. Prosecutors allege she put extra milk and air into the infant’s system, causing irreversible brain damage.
A court sketch shows Lucy Letby appearing at Warrington Magistrates’ Court via videolink on Nov. 12, 2020. The neonatal nurse is accused of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of another 10.
(SWNS)
Dr. Stephen Breary, who served as an on-call consultant at the neonatal unit at the time, testified in court that the baby’s condition had been “improving” and was “stable” on Sept. 6, 2015.
Breary told the court that early on Sept. 7, he got an emergency call because the baby had “very large projectile vomit” that ended up on the floor and on a chair next to her crib. The child suffered a collapse around 2 a.m. that day after Letby had started her 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 severe vomiting for a small baby was “astonishing.”
U.K. DOCTOR TESTIFIES IN LUCY LETBY ‘KILLER NURSE’ TRIAL: ‘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] to vomit that far is quite remarkable,” he said. “Even more astonishing is the vomit that ends up on the chair. That is several feet away.”
“I can’t recall a baby vomiting on the floor. I can’t recall a baby vomiting that distance. It was described quite correctly as extraordinary,” Evans added.
Evans told the court that he believes the only explanation for the baby’s vomiting was that she “had received far more milk” than the approved 1.5 ounces in her feeding tube, and that such “cannot occur accidentally.”
Prosecutor Nick Johnson previously told the jury that she suffered the “same problem” later that month, following a documented feed by Letby.
“There had been no significant issues with G at all. She had vomited because she had been given excessive milk and air,” he said.
VIDEO SHOWS ROOMS AT NEONATAL UNIT WHERE LUCY LETBY ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BABY
The Countess of Chester Hospital on July 3, 2018, in Chester, United Kingdom.
(Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
The father of the baby girl, who was transferred to the Countess of Chester in August 2015 after being born premature at 23 weeks, told the court that his daughter was left severely disabled after Letby allegedly tried to kill her.
“When she was in the incubator at the Countess of Chester she would smile at the sound of my voice,” the father said. “After the vomit, she was different, and she did not respond to my voice anymore.”
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He said an MRI scan later revealed the extent of her brain damage, and she now has quadriplegia cerebral palsy.
Fox News’ Ian Leonard contributed to this report.
