The mother of a baby allegedly murdered by nurse Lucy Letby has told a court her son stopped breathing 'without warning'. The infant, referred to as Child C, was born prematurely at the Countess of Chester Hospital on 10 June 2015, weighing just 800g (1.7lb), and was taken to the neonatal unit.
Letby, 32, denies murdering the child and six others, as well as attempting to murder 10 more babies. It is alleged she killed Child C by injecting air into his stomach. In a statement read to the court, the mother said staff remained positive about her son's progress after his birth, adding: 'We weren't being unrealistic but we could see he was doing all that was expected of him.'
On 13 June, the mother was awoken by a nurse at 23:20 BST and told to see her son 'urgently'. She was informed his heartrate had suddenly dropped and he had stopped breathing 'without warning'. The court heard the change in his condition was 'very sudden and unexpected'. The mother recalled: 'Initially I didn't really take in what was happening... I was asked by a neonatal nurse whether I wanted someone to call a priest. I asked her if she thought he was going to die, to which she responded, 'Yes, I think so'.'
The woman said her husband arrived, a priest was called, and their baby was baptised. She said: 'It was a way in which we were able to validate that he had been here. We wouldn't have had anything else.' The mother was initially told her son had died after his baptism, but when she held him he was still breathing. The couple stayed with their son until he died on the morning of 14 June.
The court also heard a statement from the father, who said Letby was one of two nurses who took them to a family room. He recalled one nurse, possibly Letby, bringing a ventilator basket and saying: 'You've said your goodbyes, do you want me to put him in here?' He added: 'We didn't want to leave him while he was still alive.'
In his opening speech, Ben Myers KC, defending, said Child C was vulnerable, especially to infection, and should have been at a specialist children's hospital. Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all charges.
