Mother of baby boy murdered by Lucy Letby says she was "kept in dark" by hospital boss
She has demanded a face-to-face apology at a public inquiry
Last updated 17th Sep 2024
The mother of a baby boy murdered by killer nurse Lucy Letby has accused hospital bosses of keeping her "in the dark" over the circumstances surrounding her son's death.
She has demanded a face-to-face apology while giving evidence at a public inquiry into the events surrounding Letby's crimes at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
She told the inquiry she only knew an individual was linked to her son's death when police called her to tell her someone had been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Giving evidence on Monday, Child C's mother said: "We absolutely had no idea that there had been layer upon layer upon layer of concern voiced by various people within the hospital about the conduct of Lucy Letby and her association with these deaths.
"And to not inform us of any of this and for us to get a phone call out of the blue from a police officer in the early hours of the morning... it was an absolute shock that day. We had not anticipated that that was going to happen."
Letby, from Herefordshire, forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of Child C who died in June 2015, days after another fatal attack on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Child C's mother said she was not even aware that another infant had died the same week until the start of the criminal trial that followed.
She said her family had "endured years of anxiety and stress" from the initial arrest of Letby to her convictions.
She told the inquiry: "The events of that night and everything that has happened since have left an indelible mark upon us which will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
"We had suffered immeasurably from the moment our son collapsed. The trauma that we faced from then until now is thoroughly incomprehensible to anyone who has not endured it.
"I have been truly horrified as we have learnt more and more detail of the extent of information that was withheld from us by the management at the Countess of Chester."
The Thirlwall Inquiry has heard that when medical director Ian Harvey met Child C's mother in February 2017 he was aware at the time that serious concerns had been expressed by consultants that Letby had deliberately harmed babies and that a report had criticised the quality of the care provided to Child C, and concluded his death may have been preventable.
She told the inquiry: "To find out now that all the time Ian Harvey met with us in February 2017 he was well aware of both the concerns about Letby and the report of our son's death did contain criticism is an absolute disgrace.
"I cannot understand this at all from the perspective of a medic or, in fact, any human level whatsoever.
"We continue to feel thoroughly betrayed over this. It has affected our grief, compounded our distress and given us a general sense of distrust that we didn't have before."
She confirmed to counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC that she wanted a face-to-face apology from Mr Harvey.
She said: "Yes. I feel very strongly , I felt at the time that we were being misled, that we were being kept in the dark.
"I feel very strongly now that Ian Harvey was desperately trying to stop us from asking further questions by providing a whitewash, a glossover of a report and hoping we would just take his word for it and not ask any more questions.
"I feel we were treated extremely disrespectfully and I think it has added hugely to our distress at what was already a distressing time."
She said she initially learned about an investigation into the increased number of deaths on the unit when a family friend sent a WhatsApp message of an article in the Chester Chronicle newspaper in July 2016.
She headed to the Countess of Chester and told staff "I'm not leaving until someone has the decency to talk to me about the article", the inquiry heard.
She said the hospital's director of nursing and quality Alison Kelly and her deputy, Sian Williams, came to see her and told her the investigation by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) was looking at a "very small increase" in numbers of deaths" and they were "expecting nothing to come from it".
She heard nothing more from the Countess until January 2017 when she received a phone call from Ms Williams to say the RCPCH review had been completed but there had been a "leak" to The Sunday Times who were "going to print something".
Child C's mother was later given a redacted copy of the RCPCH report - with no mention of Letby or concerns over her son's death - and then wrote to Mr Harvey on February 7 and said: " The way we found about was by reading it in a newspaper. I am sure you would agree this was a significant failure of the trust and quite frankly a disgrace.
"The report does strike me as having some suspicion that there were some unusual features of the deaths of the babies on the unit and perhaps there was something going on that caused or at least contributed to the increase in mortality."
She added that she wanted to know "for definite" if Child C's death needed further investigation".
"We need this chapter of our lives to be concluded," she wrote. "Every time another article is printed or piece of information comes to light it takes us back to the worst time of our lives when all we want is to continue moving forward."
Ms Langdale said: "The message could not have been any clearer, could it?"
Child C's mother replied: "I don't think so. I was really angry, upset and disappointed, but also completely in the dark about what was going on."
On February 20 she and her husband met with Mr Harvey and Ms Kelly, she said, and that Mr Harvey apologised for the lack of communication but did not explain why.
She told the inquiry: "Mr Harvey said there was some things that could have been done better, some minor problems with the care. I specifically asked if there was anything that would have changed the outcome for Child C ...to which he said nothing had been found that would have changed the outcome.
"We were relieved because so far as we were concerned at that time we were hurting so much from everything that had happened that anything that was going to add to that was something we were really going to struggle with."
She said he went on to tell her that "a line would be drawn under the investigation".
Child C's mother said she was "devastated" when she received a letter from Mr Harvey on March 3 which stated "small of areas of investigation" were still required and the findings would be shared in due course.
She said it was only years later she discovered a specialist neonatologist had been commissioned to examine every death on the unit.
Eventually she said she resorted to legal threats to try and get a copy of the full RCPCH report and the subsequent review of her son's case, the inquiry heard.
She said: "Quite frankly I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. Nothing was going to get me that information now because I had put it in writing, I had followed it up in emails, I had been met in person and still there was a report somewhere on somebody's desk about my dead son and they were not letting me have it.
"I felt there was nothing I could do to persuade them that the right thing to do was be transparent and open with me."
She finally received the reports on her son some eight years after her death but only following an appeal to then health secretary Steve Barclay.
Child C's mother called for a duty of candour to be "in-built into all those who work in healthcare" and for regulatory body - similar as for doctors and nurses - to be set up to improve accountability of NHS managers.
Earlier she wept at the inquiry as she recalled a phone call from Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where Child C's post-mortem examination had taken place, to say they had dressed him and he looked "beautiful".
She said: "I found this comment particularly difficult because in life he had never been dressed and if anyone was going to dress him it should have been his mother."
Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims.
The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.