As you should know, bats carry Histoplasma capsulatum and shed it in their feces (along with Aspergillus and other fungi, bacteria, and viruses). They evolved to deal with the photophobia and tinnitus it causes by hunting at night using echolocation. Bats are protected in the U.K. to the point that it is illegal to remove or block them from their roost. They even have bay colonies in royal residences—which would explain a lot.
The deaths at Countess of Chester Hospital, attributed to nurse Lucy Letby, occurred from April 2015 to October 2015, apparently ceased for six months during the winter, and then started again in April 2016. Bats in Chester, U.K., can be seen from April to October and hibernate between October and April.
Histoplasmosis causes rashes that sound similar to those seen by a doctor on Child A and Child B, 10 to 14 days before they died. The doctor said the rashes were “moving,” like mine and my coworkers’ rashes did during our disseminated histoplasmosis outbreak in the U.S. from roosting bats. She suspected an infection or toxin, possibly Pseudomonas in the water at the “unsanitary” hospital.
The autopsy reports include “embolism.” As you might already know, histoplasmosis can cause embolisms. It also causes multiple conditions that would be mistaken for embolisms.
Throat damage (swelling and bleeding?) could be laryngeal histoplasmosis. The blood over the liver could be “spontaneous hemorrhage of the splenic artery.” The liver damage could be histoplasmosis. The ridiculous charge against the nurse—apparently wildly and erratically changing her methods—of “attempted murder by overfeeding with milk” might be milk aspirated into the lungs due to dysphagia, which histoplasmosis can cause. And was the blood from the mouth “hemoptysis”?
I found a case study describing the skin of a premature infant who died from histoplasmosis, which can cross the placenta, and it sounds like the skin of the infant(s) in the case. The infants Dr. Evans examined were those he immediately “knew” were murdered. Well, I am sorry, but there is no possible way for Dr. Evans to “know” things without further testing. He was the “expert” witness who claimed to know that bleeding over the liver and a rash in an infant indicated murder! But jurors would believe anything he said because they do not know any better.
But you know better.
The “expert” doctor testified that only exogenous or synthetic insulin can cause high insulin and low C-peptide, but I read that hyperinsulinemia can. There is a brilliant paper written by researchers stating that hyperinsulinemia could be incorrectly identified as “surreptitious administration of insulin.”
Histoplasmosis can cause hyperglobulinemia, which could skew immunoassay results, and insulin antibodies would give high insulin and low C-peptide results. (Histoplasmosis can cause a positive ANA titer, and it causes autoimmune symptoms.)
The nurses said, “Insulin would never be put in a feeding bag,” but I have read multiple papers suggesting this be done.
It seems like a lot of medical testimony was incorrect.
I know about histoplasmosis because I am an immunocompetent American who got disseminated histoplasmosis from roosting bats, which carry it and shed it in their feces. Bats in the U.K. are in many buildings—it is illegal to remove them, isn’t it? And histoplasmosis cases have been identified in the U.K. by doctors smart enough to detect it.
I see a cluster of infant deaths that could have been from one or more infections. My go-to is histoplasmosis, which no doctor I went to can diagnose, especially in immunocompetent victims. The American doctors I consulted almost killed me with their ignorance regarding histoplasmosis. An infectious disease expert in an endemic area had never even heard of it.
I am a chemist and microbiologist, and I am asking you to look at only the medical evidence of the case and determine whether one or more infections might have been the cause of the infant deaths—such as histoplasmosis, Aspergillus, or any of the other microbes in filthy bat guano, which is used as fertilizer for gardens and cannabis in the U.S.
Please help. If you think the deaths in the unsanitary hospital appear to possibly be from natural causes, including infection(s), please contact someone like Dr. Shoo Lee, who is fighting against what appears to be a miscarriage of justice. Or contact anyone you know in the U.K. who might help.
Also, when others look at a nurse—again, one whose methods are wildly and unbelievably erratic—collecting items, they might call the items “trophies.” But as a scientist, I look and see “evidence.” I would have copied case reports and taken them home, too. And I might have saved the infants’ sheets, not as “trophies” but as proof of an infection and possible evidence for later.
As a chemist and microbiologist for 45 years and a disseminated histoplasmosis victim for 11 years, I have reasonable doubt and ask that the possibility of an infection at least be investigated—not only to prevent a miscarriage of justice but to prevent future infants from suffering.
Susan McIntyre is a patient advocate.
