A premature baby’s chest drain became repeatedly dislodged while Lucy Letby was on duty – almost three years before the former nurse killed her first victim.
Letby is serving life in prison for murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
But experts helping police investigate other children she cared for have been asked to look at the clinical notes of an infant born almost three years earlier, in October 2012, at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
The notes record that the baby’s chest drain was dislodged four times in four days – once on October 26, twice the following day and once on October 29, when the child’s breathing tube also fell out, according to The Times.
Letby, who had been a neonatal nurse for under a year at the time, was on duty for each shift.
One expert reviewing the case wrote: ‘It’s important to point out chest drains can and do fall out, but not in my opinion with the frequencies in this case. The number of chest drains this baby had… was extraordinary.’
Lucy Letby, pictured, is serving life in prison for murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more
The crimes took place while Letby was working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. Pictured: Corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit
Letby qualified and took a job at the Countess, pictured, in January 2012
The BBC reported another baby born a month later in Liverpool collapsed after water from a ventilator circuit went down a tube in his throat. Experts could not explain how the water got there. Again, Letby was on duty at the time.
Letby qualified and took a job at the Countess in January 2012. She undertook further training at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where the sickest and most premature babies in the area are treated, from October to December 2012, and again in January and February 2015.
Earlier this week, Cheshire Police confirmed they interviewed the 34-year-old in prison in relation to more deaths and collapses of babies, including at the Liverpool hospital.
Detectives are reviewing the 4,000 infants Letby cared for at both hospitals. The Thirlwall inquiry into Letby’s crimes was told an audit by Liverpool Women’s Hospital found babies’ breathing tubes dislodged on 40 per cent of Letby’s shifts, compared with less than 1 per cent of all others.
Another nurse, who started work at the Countess on the same day as Letby, has told the inquiry of an episode in early 2012 when a baby girl collapsed during a night shift. Letby was on duty and couldn’t wait to tell her about it, the colleague, known as Nurse ZC, revealed.
‘Lucy told me everything that had happened with the baby and that she was involved in resuscitation attempts,’ Nurse ZC said. ‘She was animated, kind of excited to tell me. She didn’t seem upset or that it had traumatised her in any way.’
Another nurse, who started work at the Countess on the same day as Letby, has told the inquiry of an episode in early 2012 when a baby girl collapsed during a night shift
Cheshire Police have not said which or how many cases Letby was questioned about in prison.
Her barrister Mark McDonald said she had agreed to be questioned on a voluntary basis but was not arrested. Letby, who is serving a rare whole-life tariff, has twice failed to appeal against her convictions.
Mr McDonald, who plans to take her case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, said: ‘What has become clear since the trial is when experienced neonatologists look at the prosecution experts’ summaries there is a profoundly different interpretation of the hospital notes and statements, such that there is a growing argument all the convictions are unsafe.’
