Indian Origin Doctor Helps Catch Nurse Guilty of Killing 7 Infants in UK

Dr Ravi Jayaram, a UK-born Indian origin doctor, helped to convict a nurse who found guilty of killing seven babies, on Friday.

Dr Jayaram is a consultant paediatrician from the Countess of Chester Hospital in Northern England”s Chester. He was among those who raised concerns and helped to convict the nurse for killing infants.

Lucy Letby, who worked as a nurse at Chester Hospital has killed seven newborn babies till the date. She also attempted to kill other six.

Police found a trove of handwritten notes while searching Letby’s house during their investigation, including one that read: “I am evil I did this”, reported the CNN.

“Some of those lives could have been saved if my concerns about Lucy Letby had been heeded and the police alerted sooner”, The Print quoted Dr Jayaram.

The 33-year old Ms Letby, was found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, for the murders that took place between 2015 and 2016.

She was also found guilty for seven counts of attempted murder, to six other infants. She will be sentenced at the same court on Monday.

The hospital staff started raising concerns after three babies died in June 2015. As more babies collapsed and died unexpectedly, senior medics like Dr Jayaram held several meetings and discussed with the hospital executives about their concerns of Letby.

“I do genuinely believe that there are four or five babies who could be going to school now who aren’t”, The Printed quoted Dr Jayram as saying on an interview with the ITV News.

Dr Jayram felt “extremely uncomfortable” as found Letby doing “nothing” when a baby collapsed for dropped oxygen levels.

In 2017, the doctors were allowed to meet the police by the National Health Service (NHS) trust. An investigation was launched shortly and eventually Letby was arrested.

The trials were begun in October 2022.

Letby used a variety of methods to secretly attack a total of 13 babies in the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016, UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) informed the court.

To kill the infants, She tried injecting air and insulin into the babies bloodstream, infusing air into their gastrointestinal tract, forced feeding an overdose of milk or fluids, and impact-type trauma. After all, she was trying to deceive her colleagues into believing that there was a natural cause behind the collapse and death of the infants.

“Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability. In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death,” said Pascale Jones of the CPS.

“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families. Her attacks were a complete betrayal of the trust placed in her,” he said.

Letby was first arrested in July 2018 and subsequently charged in November 2020.