by Prosecutors serial killer nurse Lucy Letby allegedly attempted to kill a premature baby girl by force-feeding her ‘massive’ quantities of milk through a nasal tube, a UK court has heard.
Letby, 32, is accused of overfeeding the sick baby – known only as Child G – while supervising her in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015, the BBC reported.
The nurse, who is currently on trial on charges of killing seven children and attempting to kill 10 others, struck out hours after making a banner celebrating Child G’s 100th day of life, prosecutors said .
Dr Stephen Breary, who was the on-call consultant in the neonatal unit at the time, testified in Manchester Crown Court that the baby’s health had ‘improved’ and was ‘stable’ on 6 September.
In the early hours of Sept. 7, Dr. Breary said he received an emergency call because the baby had “very large projectile vomit” that landed on the floor and on a chair next to his crib.
“This was not something I had witnessed before,” Dr. Breary testified.
Medical expert Dr Dewi Evans, who was called in by the National Crime Agency to look into the case, testified it was “amazing” for a child so young to be vomiting so severely.
“For a 2kg baby to vomit this far is quite remarkable. Even more amazing is the vomit that ends up on the chair. It is several meters away,” she told the court.
“I can’t remember a kid throwing up on the floor. I can’t remember a child who has vomited at that distance. He has quite correctly been described as extraordinary.
The little girl’s health rapidly deteriorated following the vomiting and she had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator.
Dr Evans said the only explanation was that baby G ‘had received much more milk’ than the approved 45ml in her feeding tube, adding it ‘cannot happen accidentally’.
The child survived, but was left with irreversible brain damage in the wake of the ordeal, the court heard.
Letby was arrested in 2018 after police began probing a spike in the number of newborn deaths in the neonatal unit under her watch.
The disgraced nurse, who has denied the charges brought against her, is charged with the killings of five newborns and two girls, as well as the attempted murder of five boys and five girls.
