Indian-origin doctor helps catch nurse who killed babies in U.K.
The Hindu
Indian-origin Dr. Ravi Jayaram, from the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, helped convict Lucy Letby, a nurse found guilty of killing seven babies. He raised concerns and alerted the police, believing some lives could have been saved. Letby was found guilty of murder and attempted murder and will be sentenced on Monday. Notes discovered by police revealed her mindset and evidence presented in court showed her deception and falsified notes. The families of the victims have endured unimaginable suffering.
A U.K.-born Indian-origin consultant paediatrician at a hospital in northern England is among those who raised concerns and helped convict a nurse found guilty of killing seven babies by a U.K. court on August 18.
Dr. Ravi Jayaram, from the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, said some of those lives could have been saved if his concerns about former nurse colleague Lucy Letby had been heeded and the police alerted sooner.
Letby, 33, was found guilty of the murder of seven newborn babies and also found guilty of seven counts of attempted murder relating to six other babies by a jury at Manchester Crown Court. She will be sentenced at the same court on Monday.
“I do genuinely believe that there are four or five babies who could be going to school now who aren't," Dr. Jayaram told ITV News in a television interview after the verdict.
He told the channel that consultants first began raising concerns after three babies died in June 2015. As more babies collapsed and died, senior medics like him held several meetings with hospital executives to raise their concerns about Letby.
Eventually, it was in April 2017 that the National Health Service (NHS) trust allowed doctors to meet with a police officer.
"The police, after listening to us for less than 10 minutes, realised that this is something that they had to be involved with. I could have punched the air," said Dr. Jayaram.