Pathologist found ‘clear cut’ pneumonia in one of Lucy Letby’s victims

Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others
Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others

A pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination on one of Lucy Letby’s victims found no evidence of air embolism and believed the most likely cause of death was pneumonia, the Thirwall Inquiry has heard.

Baby D was born in June 2015 and died two days after her birth, with a jury finding that Letby had injected the infant with a fatal dose of air.

But Dr Jo McPartland, a pathologist at Alder Hey hospital who carried out the post-mortem examination, told the hearing that there was “clear cut” pneumonia in the lungs and no evidence of the “froth” that is often the sign of an air embolism.

Baby D was one of seven babies that Letby was convicted of murdering at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She was also convicted of attempting to murder seven others.

Since the trial many doctors, scientists and statisticians have come forward to question the verdicts, claiming the jury was not given a full picture, an accusation that the prosecution denies.

Many doctors, scientists and statisticians have come forward to question the court's verdicts
Many doctors, scientists and statisticians have come forward to question the court’s verdicts

Dr McPartland told the Thirwall Inquiry that although she has since seen firsthand that air can be undetectable at post-mortem, she found no evidence despite taking “a lot of photographs”, including 22 internal shots.

The pathologist said that since the trial verdict she has wondered if air embolism could cause the severe lung injury seen in the baby, but said it was not something that had ever been reported in the medical literature.

Dr McPartland, who was not called to give evidence at Letby’s trial, told the hearing that Baby D’s mother’s waters broke early which left her and the baby vulnerable to infection.

“What often happens is you have infection in the amniotic fluid, and the baby then develops a pneumonia after that, and then is born with the pneumonia at the time of birth, and it is a true congenital pneumonia, and with the baby collapsing at 12 minutes of age, I thought that was most likely,” she said.

In Baby D’s case, the rupture occurred 60 hours before her birth, and the hospital was criticised for not giving her mother antibiotics to stave off an infection.

Dr McPartland said: “There was a clear cut pneumonia. There are larger patches on the right lower lobe of the lung and I know from the trial, the radiologist did agree that there were signs of pneumonia in the right lung.

“Not only was there pneumonia, there were hyaline membranes which indicated acute lung injury which you don’t normally see, so that did lead me to believe that there was more extensive lung injury from the pneumonia than you might expect, so that could explain then why the child didn’t behave as the clinicians might have expected.”

She added: “In my experience when babies have died often they do have a fluctuating course beforehand, and I have had cases before where the baby has collapsed, been resuscitated and then collapsed again and then eventually resuscitation fails, so a fluctuating course didn’t seem to be that unusual to me.

“And then obviously she has become mottled and stopped breathing again and her heart has stopped. So the whole picture did seem to suggest that she was unstable and very unwell.”

Dr McPartland said that if she had known that doctors at the hospital through deliberate harm had been inflicted she would have asked for a forensic pathologist to carry out the post-mortem and would have wanted the police to be informed.

Dr McPartland says she did not have all the information when carrying out the post-mortem of Baby D
Dr McPartland says she did not have all the information when carrying out the post-mortem of Baby D - Elizabeth Cook/PA

She said she did not have all the information when carrying out the post-mortem, and said that if an injury had also been inflicted on the baby then that may have also caused the severe lung injury seen.

“We have a child who has pneumonia, but then there’s been an inflicted cause of death on top of that, so obviously that would then change the opinion of whether pneumonia led to death or not,” she said.

“From the trial outcome in this case, I am wondering if air embolism, and survival for a couple of hours, could explain hyaline membrane development, and it’s not something that’s been reported in the medical literature though because it’s a bit unusual.

“I’m wondering if that could explain the evidence of acute lung injury in this case.”

The Thirlwall Inquiry is investigating what several medical bodies could have done to prevent the deaths
The Thirlwall Inquiry is investigating what several medical bodies could have done to prevent the deaths - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe

Baby D was one of seven babies that Letby was convicted of murdering at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She was also convicted of attempting to murder seven others.

Since the trial many doctors, scientists, and statisticians have come forward to question the verdicts, claiming the jury was not given a full picture, an accusation that the prosecution denies.

The Thirlwall Inquiry is looking into how the deaths might have been prevented by staff at the hospital and outside bodies such as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Care Quality Commission.

The inquiry continues tomorrow with evidence from consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram.