An skilled neonatal nurse was “struck” by a rash that appeared on an allegedly murdered child, telling a court docket: “You don’t really get rashes on babies.”
The lady, known as Child D, is claimed to be the third baby murdered by nurse Lucy Letby in a two-week interval, with one other teenager struggling a life-threatening collapse throughout the identical time.
Letby is on trial for the homicide of seven infants and tried homicide of ten others on the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
She denies all costs.
Caroline Oakley instructed Manchester Crown Court she had beforehand by no means seen the “unusual” rash in any new child toddler.
Mrs Oakley was the designated nurse for Child D within the neo-natal unit on the evening shift of 21 June 2015, jurors heard.
Letby, 32, was assigned to 2 different infants in the identical intensive care room.
Mrs Oakley stated Child D was “stable” from when she got here on shift at 8pm and as much as 1.30am on 22 June.
She stated: “I remember being very happy with her.”
But the kid suffered two episodes the place her oxygen ranges dropped and he or she was introduced lifeless simply hours later.
The prosecution claims she was given a deadly injection of air by Letby.
‘The rash struck me’
Giving proof from behind a display screen, Mrs Oakley stated: “I remember being on my break, I had only been gone half an hour.
“I keep in mind going into the nursery and saying ‘what’s taking place?'”
Her nursing notes recorded that Child D’s oxygen levels had dropped and she had lost colour.
She also recorded: “Discolouration to pores and skin noticed. Trunk, legs, arms, chin.”
Mrs Oakley said: “I do not keep in mind particularly the precise rash however I keep in mind I had not seen it earlier than. It was darkish, it was uncommon.
“The rash struck me. I had not seen that rash on a baby I had looked after.”
She went on: “I struggled to describe it. I remember it as a deep red/brown but different to mottling.
“Sometimes when a child is poorly they lose their color they usually have a mottled look throughout, the place this was only a rash particularly in these locations. That is what stayed with me.
“You don’t really get rashes on babies.”
Witness ‘cannot keep in mind specifics’
The baby initially responded to remedy and the rash was resolved.
But at 3am her oxygen ranges decreased once more.
Mrs Oakley stated her reminiscence of the alert was “just a blur”.
She stated: “I remember it being very busy. I don’t know exactly where I was. I could have been in the room or just out the room in the nursing station. I don’t have a clear memory.”
Ben Myers KC, defending Letby, requested the witness: “Round about the time this happened was there some discussion on the unit that people had seen an unusual rash on one or more other babies?”
Mrs Oakley replied: “I do remember that.”
Mr Myers stated: “And people comparing their recollections of what they had seen in other babies?”
Mrs Oakley stated: “I can’t remember the specifics but people had commented on a different rash recently.”
The trial continues on Monday.
Source: information.sky.com”