Fourteen leading medical experts have backed calls for Lucy Letby’s case to be sent back to the appeal court for review, after what they claim is irrefutable evidence she was not involved in the deaths of babies in her care.
In August 2023, a jury spent 22 days and more than 96 hours deliberating the string of charges levelled against the nurse. They found her guilty of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder of innocent children. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder. Verdicts were not reached on six counts of attempted murder.
Letby was then retried on one count of attempted murder in July 2024 and found guilty. She was sentenced to 15 whole-life prison orders meaning she will spend the rest of her life in prison. In May 2024, she was refused leave to appeal by three high court judges.
Yesterday her new legal team, led by her barrister Mark McDonald and backed by MP David Davis, claimed the case was ‘one of major injustices of modern times’.
Retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies, presented the findings of the panel which was an “impartial evidence-based report”. He went on to give seven examples of how the care of each baby had, he claimed, wrongly been blamed on Letby, when there was “clear evidence” something else “really happened”.
What the are experts claiming:
BABY ONE The trial heard Baby 1 died from injection of air into the intravenous line, causing air embolism resulting in collapse, patchy discolourations of the skin and death.
The panel claim that according to a research paper published by Dr Lee and Dr Qi Zhou in December 2024, babies who are injected air into their veins never show skin discolouration so there was no evidence of air embolism. They say the baby died from thrombosis due to having no infusion for four hours and having a pre-disposition to thrombosis.
BABY FOUR The trial heard that Baby 4 was a stable infant, who died from injection of air into the intravenous line, causing air embolism resulting in collapse, patchy discolourations of the skin and death.
The panel claim that as above there was no evidence of air embolism. The mother should have received antibiotics before birth due to premature rupture of membranes. They say the baby died of systemic sepsis, pneumonia and disseminated intravascular coagulation and there was a delay in medics spotting respiratory distress after birth and starting treatment.
BABY SIX The trial heard that Baby 6 was given insulin through the infusion bag.
The panel claim that Baby 6 had prolonged hypoglycemia because of sepsis, prematurity, borderline intrauterine growth restriction, lack of intravenous glucose and poor medical management of hypoglycemia. They say that the insulin level and Insulin/C-Peptideratio ratio do not prove that exogenous insulin was used, and are within the norm for preterm infants.
BABY SEVEN The trial heard that Baby was deliberately overfed and had air injected into her stomach, causing the vomiting and clinical deterioration.
The panel claim that there is no evidence to support air injection into the stomach or overfeeding. They say Baby 7 had vomiting and clinical deterioration due to infection, possibly enterovirus.
BABY NINE The trial heard baby 9’s stomach was ‘injected’ via a naso-gastric tube, leading to recurrent episodes of abdominal distension, “splinting” of the diaphragm, and respiratory arrest. It was said Letby turned off a Apnea alarm.
The panel claim the alarm would only go off if the baby had no breaths for 20 seconds, but as the baby was gasping the alarm would not got off. They say there is no evidence that it was turned off.
The panel claim baby 9 died of respiratory complications caused by respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease, complicated by S. maltophilia colonization. They say this death was likely preventable if doctors had diagnosed correctly and treated the baby with antibiotics. They added that there was no air embolism or air causing splitting of the diaphragm.
BABY 11 The trial heard a consultant alleged that Baby 11’s first episode of clinical deterioration was caused by deliberate dislodgment of her endotracheal tube and that an alarm was turned off.
The panel claim that there is no evidence to support a dislodged endotracheal tube. They say clinical deterioration was caused by use of an undersized tube. The initial intubation was traumatic and poorly supervised. The consultant did not understand the basics of resuscitation, air leak, mechanical ventilation, and how equipment that were commonly used in the unit work and there was no evidence the incubator alarms were turned off.
BABY 15 The trial heard that Baby 15 received inflicted blunt trauma to the abdomen, and a ruptured subcapsular haematoma of the liver; and that air was injected into the nasogastric tube to cause gaseous distension of the intestines. Later, the accusation was changed to deliberate injection of air into his circulation.
The panel claim that Baby 15 died from a subcapsular liver haematoma caused by traumatic delivery, resulting in haemorrhage into the peritoneal cavity, and profound shock. This was not recognised before death.
Here we take a look at who those 14 medical experts are:
Professor Emeritus Shoo Lee
Shoo Lee is the chair of the panel and presented the findings at the press conference yesterday. He is a neonatologist and health economist. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Honorary Physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, and President of the Canadian Neonatal Foundation.
He has published more than 400 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, the highest award given to a Canadian.
Professor Eric Eichenwald
Eric Eichenwald joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1990 and was a staff neonatologist at the Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s Hospitals. He remained on the faculty at Harvard Medical School until 2006, when he was named the Medical Director of the Newborn Center at Texas Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
He is currently the Alternate PI for the University of Pennsylvania NIH Neonatal Research Network site, and co-PI for an RO1 grant entitled “Intermittent Hypoxia and Caffeine in Infants Born Preterm (iCAF Study)”. He is the current Chair of the American Academy of Paediatrics Committee for Fetus and Newborn and is an Associate Editor of the Archives of Diseases in Children – Fetal and Neonatal Edition.
Professor Helmut Hummler
Helmut Hummler joined the faculty at Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar to become Chief of the Division of Neonatology in 2017 and was appointed as Professor of Paediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar in 2018.
He has published more than 150 original articles in peer-reviewed journals and editorials and book chapters. He received the Scientific Award of the German Society of Neonatology and Paediatric Intensive Care and received several awards as a Top Physician in Neonatology in Germany. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics and a member of the Society of Paediatric Research and the European Society of Paediatric Research.
Dr Tetsuya Isayama
Tetsuya Isayama is a neonatologist and clinical epidemiologist. He is the Head of the Division of Neonatology, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan. He is an emeritus task force member of the Neonatal Life Support of the International Liaison Committee of Resuscitation, the Director of the Asian Neonatal Network Collaboration, and board member of several neonatology related Japanese academic societies.
He is a recognised expert in the clinical management of extremely preterm infants. He has authored more than 100 publications in peer review journals including JAMA, JAMA Paediatrics, Paediatrics, and Circulation.
Dr Joanne Langley
Joanna Langley is a paediatric infectious disease physician and vaccine researcher at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology and Professor of Paediatrics and Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. She is currently co-chair of the Council of Expert Advisors to the Government of Canada’s Ministries of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and of Health, for the development of the Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. She is a former member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and served as vice and chair of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
Professor Neena Modi
Neena is professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London, and is a distinguished clinician scientist and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She has authored over 400 original research papers, chapters in textbooks, and other publications. She has held a number of professional leadership roles and is the current president of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, and a past-president of the British Medical Association, and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Neena is a longstanding advocate for fairness, equity, and evidence-informed decisions. Her involvement on the panel is as an individual, and not representative of any organisation or institution.
Professor Mikael Norman
Mikael Norman is from Stockholm, Sweden. In 1998, he became associate professor in paediatrics. He received a chair as professor in pediatrics & neonatal medicine at Karolinska Institutet in 2008. He has supervised 26 PhD-students and lists over 270 scientific papers with more than 18,000 citations. He is the editor of three Swedish textbooks in peadiatrics and neonatology.
His research interests are the cardiovascular system in newborn infants and children, structure and function in health and disease; Preterm birth: risk factors, interventions and short and long-term outcome; Perinatal epidemiology; Patient safety and quality of care
Professor Bruno Piedboeuf
Bruno Piedboeuf completed his paediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at the University of Montreal. After completing an additional three years in Molecular Biology at the University of Rochester, he has joined, in 1993, the Paediatric Department at Université Laval and the CHU de Québec as a clinician researcher where he practiced neonatology for 30 years.
He has maintained research activities over the years, and he is currently director of the Reproductive, maternal and child health research division of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Centre. He is the new president of the board of governance of the Canadian Neonatal Network which aims to improve the organisation of health care for pregnant women and newborns while supporting a new generation of health care researchers.
Professor Prakeshkumar Shah
Prakesh Shah is the Paediatrician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the Director of the Canadian Preterm Birth Network and an International Network for Evaluation of Outcomes of Neonates whereby he oversees a project of benchmarking outcomes of very preterm neonates in 13 countries aimed at improving quality of care across 240 NICUs.
Professor Emeritus Nalini Singhal
Dr Singhal trained at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi in India and did her residency and fellowship in Canada. Her clinical work has been with sick newborn babies. She developed and implemented resuscitation by respiratory therapists, served on the ILCOR committee for over 10 years, was Chair of the Canadian Neonatal Resuscitation Program committee and was the Regional Division Head of Neonatology in Calgary.
For the past 25 years she has been involved in Global Child Health. Her work has involved contributing to development of ‘Helping Babies Breathe,’ a program for education in low resource settings, Essential Care for Every Baby and Essential Care of Small Baby. She works as a volunteer with the World Health Organization in developing and implementing newborn programs.
Professor Erik Skarsgard
Erik Skarsgard is the Surgeon in Chief at BC Children’s Hospital and professor of surgery at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is the founding Principal Investigator of the Canadian Pediatric Surgery Network, which targets best practices for the treatment of surgical birth defects.
He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles, 8 textbook chapters and one textbook, and serves on the Editorial boards for the Journal of Paediatric Surgery and World Journal of Paediatric Surgery. He has appeared as an invited witness to the Standing Committee on Health in the Canadian House of Commons to address children’s surgical wait times on behalf of the Pediatric Surgical Chiefs of Canada.
Professor Ann Stark
Ann Stark is currently Director of Faculty Development at the Department of Neonatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor in Residence in Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Neonatology at BIDMC.
She has held leadership positions including serving as Chair of the AAP Neonatal Perinatal Section, the AAP Committee on Foetus and Newborn, and Chair of the American Board of Paediatrics Sub-board on Neonatal Perinatal Medicine, of which she was also the medical editor.
Distinguished Professor Geoff Chase
Professor Geoff Chase received PhD from Stanford University then spent six years working for General Motors and five years in Silicon Valley, including Xerox PARC, ReSound, Hughes Space and Communications, and Infineon Technologies, before joining the University of Canterbury, where he is its inaugural Distinguished Professor.
His research focuses on the intersection of engineering and clinical medicine, primarily in intensive care, metabolic disease, and cardio-pulmonary diseases, based on close clinical collaborations and clinical engineering overlap to achieve best outcomes.
One member of the panel has chosen to remain anonymous for the time being.
