I didn’t invent Lucy Letby accusation, doctor tells Thirlwall Inquiry
I didn’t invent Lucy Letby accusation, doctor tells Thirlwall Inquiry
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician, appears at public hearing on the deaths of babies cared for by nurse
Sarah KnaptonScience Editor
A doctor whose testimony helped convict Lucy Letby has denied at a public inquiry that he made up allegations against the former nurse.
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was said to have “virtually” caught Letby red-handed, when he found a breathing tube dislodged from a premature baby in February 2016.
Letby was found guilty of the attempted murder of the infant – known as Baby K – at a retrial in July, after being convicted in August 2023 of the murder of seven newborns and attempted murder of six others.
Giving evidence at the Thirwall Inquiry – which is asking how the deaths could have been prevented – Dr Jarayam admitted he had not told anyone of the incident at the time, but said he had not invented the allegations.
“It’s been suggested to me that I just made that up, which is, you know, I refute, it’s nonsense,” he said, “There’s no reason I would.”
Dr Jayaram continued: “It’s been said to me in many different fora, why didn’t you just pick up the phone to the police, or why didn’t you raise it with somebody else, or why didn’t you do anything at all?”
“I lie awake thinking about this, there’s a fear because it is such a seemingly outlandish, and unlikely, thing – that someone is causing deliberate harm. It’s the fear of not being believed, it’s the fear of ridicule, it’s the fear or accusations of bullying.
“I should have been braver, I should have more courage.”
Dr Jayaram told the inquiry that he had not seen Letby harming the baby and if the incident happened in isolation he would have “probably thought nothing more of it”.
Baby K was born at the Countess of Chester in the early hours of Feb 17 2016, at just 25 weeks and weighing just 692g (1.5lb). Such an early delivery would usually have been carried out at a tertiary centre such as the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, but there was no time to transfer her mother.
Dr Jayaram was present at the birth and was on duty when the baby collapsed around 90 minutes later. He said Letby had been left “babysitting” the infant after the designated nurse had gone to the delivery suite to update the parents.
‘I felt uncomfortable’
“There has been a narrative that I walked in and caught Letby doing something and that’s incorrect,” he told the hearing.
“I was sitting outside the room writing the notes. I just felt uncomfortable knowing that Letby was in the room, I was convincing myself I was being completely irrational and ridiculous.
“And so I got up and went in just to make sure everything was fine. I didn’t walk in and see anything happening.
“What I walked in [on] was to find a baby clearly deteriorating. And then when I went to assess Baby K the endotracheal tube was dislodged.”
He said a nurse would ordinarily have flagged up the deterioration in such a premature baby, but Letby had not.
“Had I walked in with Baby K and witnessed something then that would have been very easy. You know that’s [a] no-brainer,” he added.
‘And I think we felt or we believed because it was such an outlandish and unlikely possibility that we did need more to raise it.
“I will never know if I’d articulated that concern at that point, would [it] have made a difference.”
Baby H
Dr Jayaram also said he was concerned that a chest drain valve had been turned off in the case of Baby H, a premature girl born at the Countess of Chester in September 2015.
“Having been called in that night, it struck me ‘it’s Letby again’ and my thinking at the time is, you know, she’s very unlucky, she seems to be associated with all of these,” he said.
“In terms of the chest drain valve… it seemed to be in a closed position. I can’t say whether that was deliberately closed or not. It wasn’t something that I had even considered at the time.
“I was wondering whether it could just have been accidentally knocked. Now again, in retrospect it’s less likely. The honest answer is I don’t know.”
In the case of Baby H, the prosecution accepted the baby had received sub-optimal care at the Countess of Chester Hospital, in that there was an “unacceptable delay” in intubation and administering medicine to help her lungs.
Butterfly needles were left in her chest for prolonged periods, which may have punctured her lung tissue. There was also criticism of the way chest drains were administered and managed.
In relation to Baby H, the jury found Letby not guilty of the first charge of attempted murder and were unable to reach a verdict on the second count.
The hearing continues.
Comments
Post a Comment