JURORS AT the High Court in Dundee listened yesterday to a series of increasingly frantic phone calls made over a two-hour period to NHS 24.

As the calls progressed, a baby’s screams echoed round the court room while desperate pleas were made to the helpline by the child’s mother.

NHS 24 technical officer Gerald McTaggart agreed that between the time of the first call at 9.21pm and the start of the final call at 11.23pm, no medically qualified person spoke to those concerned, despite a promise this would be done.

The first call to the helpline was made by a man accused of shaking and severely injuring a three-month-old boy who, he said, had a fever—he was crying and sweating but cold to the touch.

Stuart Laverick (35), of Finavon Terrace, Dundee, denies that on September 24, at a house in the city, he assaulted the infant by shaking him and banging his head on a door, all to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life.

Cross examined by defence counsel Johanna Johnston, Mr McTaggart agreed the recordings he compiled contained a passage in which a call handler said no nurses were available because they had been dealing with “life threatening calls.”

He also agreed with counsel that at the end of the final call, the accused could be heard saying he would take the child to hospital himself.

Dr Veronica Rainey said she first saw the infant two weeks after his birth, on the day his mother brought him to register at the practice.

By that stage she had been notified by Ninewells Hospital that the child had spent 10 hours in the special care baby unit after his birth, following removal of an obstruction in the trachea.

She said the mother told her the child was “wheezy” when asleep but did not change colour and fed well.

She had also noted that the child looked well and showed no sign of abnormality.

She had not noted, nor had the mother mentioned, any concern about a misshapen head—something that was not uncommon in babies of that age.

Again at the routine eight-week examination the mother raised no particular concerns.

Dr Rainey said she felt “head lag” was not what she would expect at that stage of development, at the eight-week check.

The test was to gently pull the baby to a sitting position to check the muscular tone of the neck.

It was in one of the three tests performed routinely to examine muscle tone that she noted, “head control had not developed as much strength in the neck muscles as you would expect at that stage.”

This was a subjective test and only remarked in one of the three tests carried out and she had decided to carry out a check herself four weeks later.

She had not felt it necessary to refer the case to anyone else.

Otherwise the baby’s general health was such that she noted he was “fit for immunisations.”

On September 13 she carried out a further examination to review head control and noted the baby was a little sleepy.

This would have had the effect of relaxing muscles by comparison with an alert baby.

She noted head lag appeared to be decreasing and the baby’s condition otherwise appeared normal but to keep an eye on it.

She asked for him to be returned the following month.

Health visitor Katherine Brand told the court there were no matters of significance that gave rise to concerns about the health of the mother or baby.

No concerns were expressed about the shape of the baby’s head and she said she saw no more evidence of a “floppy neck” than she would expect.

She agreed with advocate depute Gary Allan that she was aware the baby had been admitted to hospital on September 24 and she had thereafter helped deal with “issues that arise as consequences of that admission.”

When she last saw the boy in December last year he was not standing, walking or speaking in a way she would expect in a child that age and was registered blind.

Defence counsel suggested the child had a large head in relation to the size of his body and this may have contributed to the muscle tone in his neck.

The health visitor disagreed, stating many babies have “head lag,” irrespective of the size or proportion of head to body.

The trial continues.