He’s not leaving here alive, is he? Baby P —ep 25
In this episode Caroline and Liz examine what the prosecution say happened to Baby P, the second of two identical triplets allegedly murdered by Lucy Letby at the end of June 2016. The nurse is accused of killing him 23 hours after his brother, by injecting air into his feeding tube and tummy.
PART 3:
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Soon afterwards the court heard
the triplets parents went off to Liverpool Women’s Hospital with their remaining son
A
nd Lucy Letby stayed late for the 2nd night running to write up her notes and around the same time she resumed her FaceBook convos with Dr A
Yes and before we outline these messages which were shown to the jury, we should explain that
Lucy Letby pricked herself with the needle at some point during the failed resuscitation and in line with hospital protocol went to a ER to get checked out and to have some blood tests…
But while she was there, she fainted , the messages between her and Dr A begin at about 9:20 that evening while she’s still at the hospital.
DR: Have you been seen yet?
L: Yes, just got back. I made a fool of myself while there
DR: I asked them to be quick for you how did you make a fool of yourself?
L: Did you really? They said someone had asked for me to be seen ASAP and they knew what happened today
Everyone talking about it Whilst I was there I fainted
Dr: I asked them to see you quickly as a favour. I didn’t give any details about today
Maybe someone from the unit also called
Oh, are you ok now?
L; Bit shaky but okay. Writing my notes, they were reluctant to let me go as on my ow
Dr: You could have bleeped me. I am almost a responsible adult.
L: I did think about it but thought you would be in recess [?] [recess or resus?]
I’m okay anyway
Dr: Do you need a lift home?
L: No, I will be okay, thanks, not finished yet anyway
Dr: I can wait, it’s no problem
L: Can you give me 10 mins?
Dr: OK
L: I’m done
Dr: just outside the front door
L: two secs
So Dr A dropped Lucy home just after 10 pm but around an hour and 20 minutes
later they resume their conversation via Facebook which continues until 1 in the morning:
L: thanks for the lift and for talking to A and E
Dr: I couldn’t have you walking back in the dark after a rubbish day, mini needle stick and an Annie faint
L: thank you, appreciated
DR: did you talk to Belinda about allocation for tomorrow ?
L: yes , she’s going to try and give me a lighter workload but said we’ll have to see how it goes overnight with a 30 weaker and twins delivering overnight, only 5 of us on too
Dr: what are you doing? I can’t concentrate on anything [sad face emoji]
L: wanting to [cry emoji]
Dr: did in the car. Must have looked a right mess when I got in
L: I keep thinking of both of them in the cart together, so peaceful yet beyond words how awful it is
Dr: I know, Dad was pushing them back to you he stopped and thanked me [crying emoji]
I gave him a hug. It seemed the only thing to do [crying emoji]
L: so sad ,the family all thanked me when I took baby P in dressed, and I know age doesn’t make it any easier/harder, but such a lot to go through at a young age
Dr: I don’t know how it would be possible to get over losing a child. Let alone two
L: [crying emoji]. Think my head may explode
So Lucy Letby went to bed but the court heard that unbeknown to her, some of the consultants on the unit were so suspicious they decided she must be removed from work until a proper investigation could be carried out
We covered a lot of this in our bonus episode -episode 24 on Friday—but in a nutshell Baby P’s death prompted the head of the neonatal unit, Dr Steven Breary, to phone the hospital executive on duty and demand Lucy Letby be removed from work immediately
But his request was refused and Lucy returned to work the following day which is when she allegedly harmed the final baby in this case—Baby Q, who we’ll hear more about in a couple of weeks time
Lucy Letby denies murdering or harming any babies—so what did her KC , Ben Meyers, say about what happened to Baby P?
So like in the case of his brother, Mr Meyers said Baby P had suboptimal or poor care at the Countess.
He suggested his deterioration the night before he died was due to too much milk being given to him by nurse Alice, and that the air she removed from his tummy was due to some new problem going on in his gut. Nurse Alice admitted this was a possibility but she also said the air could have been there all along and only aspirated in the early hours because the tip of the feeding tube in his stomach had moved.
The court also heard that blood tests later showed no evidence that he had an infection.
Mr Meyers said Baby P’s death could have been complications related to his punctured lung
He suggested the puncture was caused by vigorous resuscitation attempts by the doctors,
Or because they set the air pressures too high when they attached him to the ventilator, helping him to breathe.
Dr Breary admitted that this was possible but said it was highly unlikely that the punctured lung cause by Baby P’s collapse because once it was spotted it was quickly resolved more than three and a half hours before his death.
Mr Meyers also pointed out to Dr Evans ,the prosecution’s expert witness, that his 1st report on Baby P actually blamed the punctured lung for his death. The barrister accused Dr Evans of inventing an extra dollop of air being administered to Baby P on the morning of June 24th, to take his theory over the line and support the allegation of murder against Lucy Letby.
Dr Evans denied this—but he admitted that after listening to the evidence from Doctors who treated Baby P that he’d changed his mind about what caused his collapse.
Mr Meyers also pointed out that there had been a mistake in the amount of adrenaline given to Baby P who was accidentally give double the intended dose in his drip, over the course of the afternoon. He suggested the drug could have made his condition worse.
But Dr Rackham told the jury that Baby P suffered no apparent side affects from the increased dosage, as did Dr Sandi Bowen, the other prosecution’s expert.
She said neither his blood pressure or heart rate went up dramatically, as would be expected if he had too much and both
Dr Bowen and Dr Evans agreed that air had been injected into Baby P’s tummy before his death.
They told jurors it squashed his lungs and splinted his diaphragm which compromised his breathing and caused his collapse.
