The parents of newborn triplets begged for their surviving child to be transferred to another hospital, after two of their babies died within 24 hours of each other, the jury heard during British nurse Lucy Letby’s trial Wednesday.
Letby, 33, is accused of the 2015 and 2016 killings of seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England. She faces 22 charges, including the attempted murders of 10 other infants.
According to the source, authorities allege Letby injected two of the newborn triplets — identified in court as Child O and Child P — with air shortly after they were born in June 2016.
In a statement written by the babies’ mother and read to the jury, she explained how the neonatal unit “was a scene of chaos,” when Child O fell ill two days after their birth.
Similarly, in the intensive care room, she alleged “lots of medical staff were rushing around … the staff seemed to be in a state of panic, and it didn’t seem to be controlled,” the outlet reports.
Child O allegedly had a stomach that “looked like [the film character] E.T.,” their father described in a video interview played to the court, news reports.
“You could see his veins were all bright, bright blue,” he explained in the video while pointing to his hand, per the outlet.
“All of them were different colors,” he continued. “It looked like he had really bad prickly heat … you could see something through his veins.”
The baby died that day at two days old.
“On the face of it, everything had been going so well, it was never explained to us how it happened,” their mother said, the Mister Truth reports. “As a family, we were naturally devastated.”
Twenty-four hours later, the already-grieving parents learned a second triplet, Child P, was allegedly experiencing a medical emergency that mirrored Child O’s.
“It was pandemonium and absolutely mental — it was worse than the day before,” their father described.
Less than 24 hours after Child O’s death, Child P also died, the court learned, according to the outlet. The parents allegedly pleaded for a transfer of hospitals for their single surviving baby.
“We said, ‘There’s no way he’s staying at this hospital,'” the triplet’s father said, the BBC reports. “‘If you don’t take him, we’ll take him ourselves.'”
Following the deaths of their two newborns, the parents alleged Letby brought their dressed remains, as well as memory boxes, to their hospital room.
“Lucy was extremely upset and emotional and in pieces — and almost as upset as we were,” the mother explained, per news. “She brought [the babies] to see us in a cooling basket. She was in a floods of tears.”
The family did transfer hospitals. Letby has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.
The trial continues.