This is a baby that we haven't heard about in evidence yet, so I'm just going from opening speeches on this. Quotes from media thread.
Defence:
Chester Standard:
For Child K, the defence say the tube was dislodged, and the prosecution say that was Letby's doing. "Letby does not agree she did that, nor is she seen to have done that."
The prosecution say Child K had been sedated.
The defence say it is disputed, that Child K was able to move, and there would be evidence to follow on that.
The defence say there was "sub-optimal care" and Child K "should not have been at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the first place", but in a hospital providing tertiary care.
ITV:
The defence say the probable cause of the tube moving was was the child inadvertently doing it herself. They added her case was another example of “sub-optimal care” in that she should have been treated at a more specialist unit
Prosecution:
Chester Standard:
There was not time to deliver at a hospital for this type of maternity delivery care. Dr Ravi Jayaram, paediatric consultant, was present at her birth as a result. [...]
Dr Jayaram was aware the designated nurse was not there, a fact backed up by door swipe data. Lucy Letby was the only nurse in room 1, alone with Child K. [...]
Dr Jayaram found Child K's breathing tube had been dislodged. Child K was very premature, and had been sedated and inactive. The tube had been secured by tape and attached to Child K's headgear.
ITV:
[Baby K] was born at 25 weeks on 17 February 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, weighing just 692g.
She was considered in as good a condition as possible for a baby born that early and was booked into the neonatal unit by Letby.
Around 90 minutes later, as arrangements were being made for the baby’s transfer to a more specialist hospital on Merseyside, Dr Ravi Jayaram was at the nurses station aware Letby was alone with the baby.
[...] he saw Letby standing over the child's incubator as her oxygen saturation level was falling dangerously low.
Dr Jayaram found child K’s chest was not moving and asked Lucy Letby if anything had happened. Letby was said to have replied: "She’s just started deteriorating now."
Mr Johnson said Dr Jayaram found child K’s breathing tube had been dislodged, which can happen in an active baby, but child K was very premature, had been sedated and was inactive.
Later the same morning, Letby was again at child K’s cot calling for help.
She was assisting the baby with her breathing and it was found child K’s breathing tube had this time slipped too far into her throat.
Child K was transferred to another hospital later that day but remained unwell and died two days later.
Letby is not accused of her murder.
Sky News:
At 9am she was transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral where she remained unwell and died on 20 February 2016.
Chester Standard:
In police interview, when Dr Jayaram's account was put to her, she said no concerns had been raised at the time.
She said the alarm had not sounded. She said Child K was sedated and had not been moving around.
She also did not recall either any significant fall in saturations or there being no alarm. She accepted that in the circumstances described by Dr Jayaram she would have expected the alarm to have sounded.
She denied dislodging the tube and said she would have summoned help had Dr Jayaram not arrived, saying she was "possibly waiting to see if she self-corrected, we don’t normally intervene straight away if they weren’t dangerously low".
After the interviews - that suggestion made by Lucy Letby was referred to a nursing expert. Her view was that it was very unlikely that a nurse would leave the bedside of an intubated neonate unless they were very confident that the ET tube was correctly located and secure, the baby was inactive and then they would be away only briefly.
The nurse dismissed the idea that a competent nurse would have delayed intervention if there had been a desaturation.
Letby was found to have researched Child K's parents on Facebook in April 2018 - two years and two months after Child K had died. When asked about this, she said she did not recall doing so.
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Baby K was an hour and a half old. How on earth can the defence criticise the hospital for her being in the unit for that short time while arrangements were being made to transfer her?
The case of baby K interests me because of LL's Facebook search a few months before her first arrest.
And also because baby K had not died on LL's watch, or at the Countess. I don't believe there has ever been any information in the press about investigation into the deaths of babies at Arrowe Park hospital.
It also interests me because she said Dr Jayaram had not raised concerns with her, so she had no reason to suspect that she was under suspicion for what happened that night, 5 months before she was removed from nursing duties.
MOO
