A paramedic accused of killing her foster child broke down in tears as she told a jury how the baby ‘slipped from my grasp’ and fell to the floor as she gave her a bed-time cuddle.
Sarah Higgins, 42, said she was putting ten-month old Skyla Giller to bed when she lost grip of the infant.
Skyla suffered a catastrophic brain injury and died two days later following surgery, a court heard.
Higgins and her husband Martin Dobson are both Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedics and were in the process of adopting Skyla at the time of her death on August 26, 2017.
Paramedic Sarah Higgins (pictured outside Leeds Crown Court), 42, is accused of killing her foster child. Higgins broke down in tears as she told a jury how the baby ‘slipped from my grasp’ and fell to the floor as she gave her a bed-time cuddle
Giving evidence to a manslaughter jury, Higgins, who was living in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, at the time, said she got Skyla ready for bed and had been sitting in a rocking chair feeding her milk while listening to lullabies.
After feeding, Higgins stood up with Skyla at chest height facing away from her.
‘I wanted to give her a cuddle. I stood up with my arms under her armpits and I lost grip of her and she fell to the floor,’ said Higgins, through sobs.
‘I was trying to turn her so that I could look at her and give her a love [hug] before putting her in her cot.
Higgins said she was putting ten-month old Skyla Giller (pictured) to bed – at a property in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 2017 – when she lost grip of the infant. Skyla suffered a catastrophic brain injury and died two days later following surgery, the court heard
‘I was standing and she fell at my feet. When she slipped from my grasp, I was looking straight ahead. It happened in a split second.’
Higgins said Skyla was sitting on her bottom when she looked down and she did not see her bang her head.
‘I got down as quickly as I could to pick her up. I picked her back up and she cried and I gave her a cuddle and she continued to cry a little bit and then she calmed down, she was consolable,’ said Higgins.
‘I just gave her a love and rocked her from side to side. She seemed fine. She was looking at me and I thought she is okay and I rocked her on my body for a couple of minutes or so and she seemed absolutely fine.’
Higgins placed Skyla in her cot and activated a mobile which played lullabies and had lights on, which normally made her giddy, but on this occasion she didn’t react.
‘She had a glazed look, a blank stare on her face,’ said Higgins.
‘I stood and watched her, we are talking seconds, before I knew there was something catastrophically wrong.
‘She raised her arms and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. I knew there was something seriously wrong. I could see a tiny, tiny trace of blood on her lips.’
Higgins scooped her up and took her into the kitchen and placed her on the dining table.
Skyla was intermittently going rigid and then floppy.
‘I was absolutely panic stricken.I knew she needed to go to A&E. I knew she needed an ambulance.’
Higgins phoned her on-duty partner Martin in a bid to speed up the arrival of an ambulance, but he did not answer, so she used the landline to dial 999 before running to a neighbour’s for help.
‘I was blaming myself for it, for any damage I had caused,’ said Higgins.
In the 999 recording, she could be heard saying, “God, I think I must have done something to her”.
Skyla was taken to Leeds General Infirmary and was operated upon for a severe bleed to the brain.
Doctors who assessed the baby just before her death were not given any explanation after discovering multiple bruises on the baby’s arm, the court heard.
Higgins denies manslaughter. The trial continues.