Friday October 21st 2022 - Live updates from the trial
Adding this report here---the Neo-natal shift leader who was holding Baby A as he was being resuscitated:
Day 6 of Prosecution Case - Evidence of Neonatal Nurse/Night-Shift Leader on June 8th 2015 - Re: Child A
The next witness is someone who was also working at the Countess of Chester Hospital, as a neonatal nurse in June 2015.
She describes, on staffing levels: "There were definitely periods when we were short-staffed, periods when we were ok."
For shifts when they were 'short on numbers', they would look to bring staff and swap on the rota, or if anyone could do an extra shift.
Agency or bank nurses were a possibility, but didn't happen very often.
The nurse was the shift leader at the neonatal unit on the night-shift for June 8. Lucy Letby was one of the designated nurses.
She recalls the Neopuff device was being used to give Child A breaths, as he had "stopped breathing".
She recalled being told it had happened "suddenly".
She recalled being involved in the resuscitation attempts, and was physically holding Child A at the time.
She recalled she had "never seen a baby look that way before", with a skin discolouration on a pattern she had "never seen before".
Asked to describe the discolouration, she said he was "white with purple blotches", with a bit of "blue", and it had "come on very suddenly".
"Just very unusual, it was," she added.
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Inside the courtroom
Lucy Letby says baby A had mottled skin, but it was not an abnormal discolouration. She says: "He was unusually pale, but in terms of the colour, it was not unusual."
She also disagrees with his statement that Child A had patches of blue/purple, as well as of red and white in places.
Mr Johnson asks if Letby is suggesting the doctor's recollection is made up.
"I didn't see it, if he saw something I didn't see that's something for him to justify."
Letby also disagrees with the recollection of a nurse - who she said was a friend - of discolouration and blotchiness.
She tells the court she doesn't remember Child A having any "abnormal discolouration".
