Lucy Letby is on trial at Manchester Crown Court (Picture: SWNS)
Nurse Lucy Letby was seen standing by the incubator of a premature baby after its heart rate and oxygen levels dropped, her trial heard today.
Child C, who died on June 14, 2015, is the second baby she is accused of killing at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.
Manchester Crown Court heard from colleague Sophie Ellis, who had care for the premature infant the night before the baby died and was newly-qualified at the time.
Ms Ellis said Child C, who weighed just 800 grams at birth, was fed for the first time at 11pm on June 13.
She left the room briefly to go to the nurse’s station but was alerted by an alarm from the baby’s monitor.
When asked what she saw, she said: ‘I’d seen Lucy standing by the incubator.’
She said Ms Letby – who denies all charges – told her the baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels had dropped but she could not recall what she was doing at the time.
Child C’s condition resolved by itself, she said, but the baby’s heart heart rate and oxygen levels dropped again.
Ms Ellis said: ‘Lucy was stood at the incubator. I would have been looking from the computer, it was on the right-hand side.’
Lucy Letby’s trial is expected to last six months (Picture: PA)
The witness said she then put out a crash call for a medical team to attend and performed chest compressions until becoming upset when the baby’s mother came in.
She said: ‘It was completely overwhelming. It was very sudden, very unexpected. I did get a little bit upset.
‘Lucy was stood opposite me and she said: “Do you want me to take over?” And I said yes.’
Defending, Ben Myers KC suggested Letby was not in the room at the time when Child C’s condition had deteriorated and came in after resuscitation started.
Ms Ellis said: ‘I don’t agree with that.’
Another nurse, Melanie Taylor, told the court she remembered going to Child C’s incubator after he deteriorated.
Letby is alleged to have killed the babies between June 2015 and June 2016 (Picture: Lucy Letby/ Cavendish Press)
She said: ‘When I first approached the incubator Lucy was already there and I don’t know if anybody else was present at that time or not.’
Mr Myers said in a statement given to police in 2018, the nurse did not mention Letby, but remembered being called over to the incubator by Ms Ellis.
He said: ‘You put Lucy Letby right in the centre of this in evidence to the jury in a way you didn’t when you made a statement to police.’
Ms Taylor replied: ‘I’m just saying what I remembered.’
The court heard how Letby was designated to look after another baby in a different room at the time of Child C’s collapse.
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The court also heard Child C died just before 6am on June 14, 2015.
Letby denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The trial continues on Monday.
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The 32-year-old denies killing vulnerable infants in her care.
