Lucy Letby: Baby needed help to breathe after attack, trial hears

A baby boy needed breathing support minutes after he was allegedly attacked by nurse Lucy Letby, a court has heard.

Ms Letby is accused of attempting to murder the infant, Child Q, on 25 June 2016 after allegedly murdering two triplets, Child O and P, on the previous two days.

The nurse is charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The 33-year-old denies all charges.

Manchester Crown Court heard how Child Q, who was born nine weeks premature, was "stable" on the evening before his collapse.

Jurors heard the infant deteriorated and needed breathing support shortly after 09:00 BST on 25 June.

The Crown said Ms Letby injected air and fluid into the boy's stomach via a nasogastric tube in an attempt to kill him.

The incident is said to have taken place while another nurse, Mary Griffith, had her back to Ms Letby in nursery two on the hospital's neo-natal unit.

Ms Griffith recalled Ms Letby, who was Child Q's designated nurse, asked her to watch the boy while she went to check on another infant in her care.

Shortly after Ms Letby left nursey two, Ms Griffith said: "Child Q's alarms went off".

"I looked over my shoulder and saw his saturations had dropped," she said.

Ms Griffith was partway through feeding another baby and could not immediately assist, so called nursing colleague Minna Lappalainen in to help.

Ms Lappalainen told the court that when approached Child Q she could see he had vomited.

"Sick and mucous was coming out of his mouth so I turned him on his side and made sure his airway was alright, I cleared that and gave him oxygen," she said.

Ms Lappalainen told the court after she cleared Child Q's airway she put out an emergency call for the paediatric doctors to attend.

Clinical notes, shown to the court, stated Child Q was "mottled" in appearance at that time.

Ben Myers KC, defending, asked Ms Lappalainen whether she was "overly concerned" by Child Q that morning.

"I wasn't overly concerned, but I wanted him to be checked out," Ms Lappalainen said.

The boy made a "reasonable recovery" throughout the day of 25 June and was eventually discharged from the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The court has previously heard Ms Letby was removed from her frontline nursing role and placed on clerical duties in the week that followed Child Q's collapse.

The trial continues.

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