An international panel of 14 neonatal and pediatric specialists raised serious doubts on the evidence used to condemn British nurse Lucy Leby, who was found guilty in 2023 for murder in the hospital where she worked on Tuesday.
At a dramatic press conference in London, the president of the panel, Dr. Shoo Lee, a Canadian neonatologist, said that the vast independent review had found no evidence that Ms. Leby had murdered or tried to kill one Babies at its expense.
He also highlighted overwhelming results pointing towards serious errors in medical care in the unit where deaths took place and chronic failures in the management of neonatal conditions. He said that some of the deaths had been avoidable.
“Our conclusion was that there was no medical evidence to support the embezzlement that caused injuries in any of the 17 cases of the trial,” said Dr. Lee. “In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we found no murder.”
The examination is important because it was carried out by some of the most prestigious and most respected neonatal and pediatric specialists in the world.
Experts were authorized to assess all the available medical records related to babies, and they delivered their pro Bono assessment. The panel highlighted the serious pre -existing conditions of certain babies and, in several cases, specialists have found significant errors in the treatment or care of infants.
Ms. Ledby, 35, was sentenced to a whole life order in 2023 – which means that she would spend the rest of her life in prison – after being sentenced for having killed seven babies and trying to assassinate seven others The neonatal unit of the countess of the hospital countess Chester in the northwest of England in 2015 and 2016. It has always maintained its innocence.
The Comtesse de Chester hospital, when he was contacted to comment on Tuesday, said the hospital was focused on current police investigations and a public inquiry related to the case.
Dr. Lee directed the independent review of babies, which involved a panel of specialists from countries like Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
He underlined the independence of the panel, noting that when the experts embarked on their investigation, they were clear that the report would be published if the results were favorable or unfavorable to Ms. Ledby.
They simply focused on creating a “impartial cause of death based on evidence,” he said.
The examination revealed that all babies had died or had been injured either due to natural causes or due to errors in medical care.
Dr. Lee had co-author a university article published in 1989 which examined the air embolism in the blood circulation of babies and noted that some showed signs of skin discoloration. This research was strongly invoked by Dr. Dewi Evans, the main expert witness of the accusation in the LEBY affair. Dr. Evans argued before the court that some of the deceased or deteriorated babies had presented similar models on their skin.
After the trial, Dr. Lee discovered that his research had been used to condemn Ms. Ledby. He agreed to testify in Mme Letby’s callSaying to an audience that Dr. Evans had misinterpreted his conclusions and that none of the tests of the test should have been diagnosed with air embolism. In the end, the Court of Appeal decided that its evidence would not be heard, arguing that the defense team of Ms. Ledby should have called Dr. Lee in the initial trial.
The panel examined the case of each baby and, during the briefing, underlined some of the cases and the detailed results of the panel.
In the case of “Baby 1”, which said that the prosecutors were killed by Ms. Ledby by injecting the air into the infant’s veins, the panel determined that the cause of death was the thrombosis of an existing problem.
Another child, identified by the panel as “baby 9”, which the accusation had argued was also died after Ms. Ledby injected Air, was found by experts as “deceased from respiratory complications” caused by a chronic pulmonary disease , among other questions. The panel also found that the death of the baby was probably avoidable and described a number of treatment errors.
In the case of “Baby 11”, the accusation had argued that Ms. Ledby had deliberately dislodged a respiratory tube. But the experts said that there was no evidence in support of the assertion that the tube was dislodged. Rather, they argued that a first attempt by a consultant doctor to relying the baby had been “traumatic and poorly supervised”, that poor equipment had been used and that the doctor “did not understand the bases” of the way in which the mechanical ventilation equipment worked.
“It’s just that the consultant did not know what he was doing,” said Dr. Lee, summarizing the case.
Dr. Neena Modi, a member of the panel and professor of neonatology at the Imperial College of London, said that there were “reasons very plausible to the death of these babies”.
“There was a combination of babies delivered in the wrong place, delayed diagnosis and inappropriate or absent treatment,” she said. “There are clearly systemic factors at stake that we have identified as well as individual factors that we have identified.”
Ms. Leby lost two separate attempts last year to call on her convictions.
In December, Ms. Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said that he would ask the Court of Appeal to examine all his convictions because the Dre Evans, witness to the accusation, had changed his mind on the Death of three of the babies.
Dr. Evans has repeatedly maintained his proofs, and he said to Times de London Last weekend, he was “very worried people are wrong with their facts”.
The cause of the death of babies was questioned by experts before. In December, the defense team presented evidence of two neonatologists, Dr. Neil Aiton and Dr. Svilena Dmitrova, who specialize in premature babies. These experts concluded that two babies that Ms. Letby had been convicted of having killed did not go well and had died for “identifiable medical reasons”.
Doctors, who consulted the baby’s medical records, found that that, identified as baby C, died after problems with the placenta at the end of pregnancy. They concluded that another, Baby O, died due to problems related to resuscitation.
Mr. McDonald, the lawyer, said on Tuesday that he had asked the Criminal Affairs Revision Committee, which is responsible for the investigation into the allegations of false strata of justice. He also noted that he had shared the evidence with Ms. Ledby and, when he refused to share more details on his state of mind, he said: “She has hope, and that’s all What I can say. “
The criminal affairs examination committee confirmed that it had received a request to examine the caseBut it was not clear how long it would take.
“We are aware that there have been a lot of speculation and comments surrounding the case of Lucy Ledby, a large part of parties with only a partial vision of the evidence,” said a spokesperson for the examination organization , adding that families affected by the events must be kept in mind.
It is not for the commission to “determine innocence or guilt in a case,” noted the spokesperson: “This is a question for the courts”.
