Lucy Letby: Baby 'improved drastically' after moving to Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital, parents say
Parents of a baby allegedly attacked by nurse Lucy Letby say their daughter 'improved drastically almost as soon as she arrived' at a different hospital.
Child H, a six-week premature girl, was transferred to Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital after she suffered two collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit.
The prosecution say Letby, 32, was responsible for the incidents on successive night shifts in the early hours of 26 and 27 September 2015.
Letby, originally from Hereford, is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others on the unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
In a statement read to the court, Child H’s mother said she was recovering in the maternity unit on 26 September when nurses came in to her room and told her she had to come 'right away' to the neo-natal unit.
When she arrived in the room, she said lots of medical personnel were around her daughter and the lid of her incubator was open.
She said: “It was obvious to me they were resuscitating her. They told me to go in to the room and just sit with her and hold her hand which I did.”
Her husband stated: “I definitely remember Lucy being there as she was doing the chest massages.”
He added his daughter was a “very strange colour” and “very mottled”.
Staff managed to get their daughter back, but were not able to explain why she suffered a sudden cardiac collapse and her father said a consultant told them he 'could not guarantee' she would make it through the night.
Jurors heard that Child H stabilised throughout the day but not long after the parents went to bed, they heard a knock on the door and staff told them they were needed back in the unit because their daughter was not responding.
Child H's mother said: “We were met with an almost identical scene with multiple members of staff working with (Child H) in her incubator.”
She said her daughter's recovery was quicker and soon after she was transferred to Arrowe Park where they carried out several tests to try and establish the cause of the collapses.
A brain scan showed Child H had suffered no long-term damage.
Child H’s mother said: “It was clear to us that (Child H) improved dramatically almost as soon as she arrived at Arrowe Park.
“I would say she was like a completely different baby once at Arrowe Park.”
Her husband stated: “She was only there a few days but she was just like a different baby, She was more responsive, She was more with it. She just came on in leaps and bounds.”
Child H was moved back to the Countess of Chester Hospital and discharged the following month after she continued to improve.
Her mother said her daughter has been 'absolutely fine and healthy since'.
Letby denies all the allegations.
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