A mother “completely trusted” nurse Lucy Letby when she left her “screaming” son in her care, a court has heard.
Letby, 32, is said to have murdered the infant with an injection of air into the bloodstream.
The Crown say she attacked the newborn baby, referred to as Child E, shortly before his mother walked into the intensive care room of the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Giving evidence on Monday, Child E’s mother told jurors at Manchester Crown Court she visited the unit just before 9pm on August 3 2015 to drop off breast milk.
Her son and his twin brother, Child F – who Letby is accused of later attempting to murder – were in incubators in the room with Letby, she said.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC asked: “What could you see and hear when you walked into the room?”
She replied: “I could hear my son crying and it was like nothing I had heard before. And I walked over to the incubator to see blood coming out of his mouth.
“And I panicked… I was panicking… because it felt there was something wrong.”
The witness recalled Letby was standing at a nearby work station when she entered the room.
“She was busy doing something but was not near (Child E),” said the boy’s mother.
She told the court she heard the cries in the main corridor as she approached the room.
She added: “It was a sound that should not come from a tiny baby. I can’t explain what the sound was. It was horrendous. More of a scream than a cry.”
The mother explained she tried in vain to comfort her son and then noticed blood around his bottom lip and top of his chin.
Mr Johnson asked: “Did you ask Lucy Letby about what it was you could see?”
The witness replied: “Yes. I asked why he was bleeding and what was wrong.
I knew there was something very, very wrong. I was frightened
“She said the feed tube from the back of his throat would have been rubbing and that would have caused the bleeding.”
Mr Johnson said: “Did you accept that explanation?”
“Yes,” said the witness.
Mr Johnson said: “Were you concerned about the explanation?”
Lucy Letby is on trial at Manchester Crown Court
