The baby-killing British nurse experimented with various medical techniques to hurt tots during her murderous five-year career, according to the chief medical expert at her trial.
Dr. Dewi Evans Lucy said Letby, who was convicted last month of killing seven babies and attempting to murder six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016, used hard-to-detect methods to carry out her monstrous acts, including displacing tubes and injecting air into her victims.
Following the arrest of the 33-year-old in 2018 over the deaths of eight children at Chester hospital, Evans said he was asked to review the notes of 48 babies, none of which were included in the trial.
He found 18 cases concerning, many involving babies who had breathing tubes removed or displaced in 2014, which he believed was Letby’s initial preferred method for harming children.
“For so many breathing tubes to come out, and they can come out accidentally, but for so many to come out over such a short period of time in what I consider to be a good neonatal department, that is very concerning,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
One case involved an insulin poisoning death, he added.
Dr. Dewi Evans said he believed one of Letby’s preferred methods for harming babies was removing their breathing tubes.EyePress News/Shutterstock
“It wouldn’t surprise me if she committed another insulin poisoning or two where doctors didn’t measure the insulin level after death,” Evans said.
“If you do not measure the insulin level then you can’t know whether there was foul play. There are undoubtedly more cases of insulin poisoning.”
The murders began to pile up in the Letby’s unit after she attended a training course that highlighted the dangers of air embolism, where air enters the blood vessels, leading to serious or fatal conditions such as a stroke or heart attack.
Evans noted that the number of murders began to pile up after Letby took a training course stressing the dangers of air embolisms.Getty Images
“As far as I am aware, there were no air embolism deaths before she went on that course,” he said.
“It was after she discovered that method, the deaths really increased.”
Prosecutors will announce Monday whether Letby, Britain’s worst child killer, will face a new trial over six outstanding attempted murder charges on which a jury failed to reach a verdict.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn