Prosecution alleges Lucy Letby overfed the baby girl with milk in an attempt to murder her
By Jon Brown
During the trial of suspected murderous neonatal nurse Lucy Letby in the UK, a doctor testified that he “can’t think of a natural cause” for the infant’s severe projectile vomiting that was allegedly caused by her care.
According to the BBC, Letby, 32, is accused of overfeeding the ill infant girl known as Child G while she was working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015.
Between June 2015 and June 2016, Letby is accused of murdering seven infants and attempting to kill ten more. All 22 of the accusations against her have been refuted.
The Manchester Crown Court was informed that Letby allegedly attempted to murder Child G three times. According to the prosecution, she allegedly gave the baby too much milk and air, resulting in permanent brain damage.
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.”
“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.
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.”
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.
