chapter thirteen
CHAPTER THIRTEEN. THE ACCUSATION OF AIR INJECTED INTO THE NASO-GASTRIC TUBE.
Doctor Dewi Evans, the chief prosecution witness claimed that Lucy Letby had deliberately tried to murder some of the babies by injecting air into their stomach via their naso-gastric tube. This claim was based on the fact that some of the babies had distended abdomens. Here are some comments from various medical experts regarding this claim:-
These quotes from an article in The Guardian are from the following web page:-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/09/lucy-letby-evidence-experts-question
Lucy Letby: killer or coincidence? Why some experts question the evidence
Tue 9 Jul 2024 07.00 BST
The idea that injecting air into the stomach via a nasogastric tube could cause collapse leading to death was described as nonsensical or “rubbish”, “ridiculous”, “implausible” and “fantastical”, by eight separate expert clinicians who spoke to the Guardian, seven of them specialising in neonatology. Several said it was not practically feasible. Nasogastric tubes are tiny; it would take several refills using the 10ml syringes on neonatal units to inject a significant quantity of air. Furthermore, it would leak out or the baby would burp or vomit it up, or pass it as wind, they said. Evans said: “It was a phenomenon I had never encountered previously.”
Here are some quotes from Private Eye Special Report. The Lessons of The Lucy Letby Case, by Doctor Phil Hammond. MD. (available online.)
Private Eye Report, part 1:- A neonatologist stated that if apnoea occurs, ventilation by a mask must be carried out. As the mask covers nose and mouth, the stomach is inevitably distended.
Private Eye Report part 12:- Doctor Dewi Evans AFTER THE TRIAL signed a statement to the effect that “none of the babies were killed as a direct result of the injection of air - - - deliberately injected into their stomachs.” (My comment:- This method of serial murder was heavily promoted during the trial!)
Private Eye Report, part 8:- Letby was not even on duty then Babies I and C were found to have an unusual amount of air in the stomach.
Private Eye Report, part 6:- One consultant stated “It’s B(expletive deleted)cks, Babies get too much air in the stomach all the time with all the - - masking”.
Here is a quote from the i (newspaper) February 5th, 2025, page 4:- Neonatologist Doctor Shoo Lee said that air in the baby’s system was likely to have been introduced by resuscitation attempts.
Now for a quote from the article in The New Yorker (issue for May 20th, 2024) by Rachel Aviv, entitled – A Reporter at Large – Conviction, page 48:- In one case, Evans stated that death was from air injected into the naso-gastric tube. When it emerged that the baby probably did not ever have a naso-gastric tube, he altered his testimony to deliberately “smothering” the baby. (My highlighting.)
My comment:- So there you have it. Doctor Dewi Evans’ notion of injecting air into the babies’ stomach via the naso-gastric tube is a non-starter. The problem is that this method was heavily promoted in the trial, and Lucy Letby’s conviction was brought about in part by a piece of pseudoscience, which has been described by experts as “rubbish”, “ridiculous”, “implausible” and “fantastical”.