THE grieving parents of a 15- year-old boy believe he may have died from an undiagnosed hereditary heart condition.

Luke James Marshall collapsed and died as he sat in his bedroom playing computer games.

When his father found him slumped on his bed the following morning, he tried in vain to revive him.

Paramedics pronounced him dead soon afterwards, and his family think he probably died in the early hours as a result of an unknown heart defect.

Yesterday, his father James Maxwell, who at the age of 39 had a pacemaker fitted, said when Luke was two, he collapsed on the sofa.

“He had a seizure and stopped breathing,” said Mr Maxwell.

“His lips went blue and everything, so I did CPR on him. Just as the ambulance came around the corner, he started breathing again.

“I think the same thing could have happened again, but no one knew there was a problem.”

An inquest was held into Luke’s death at Teesside Coroner’s Court yesterday.

Mr Maxwell told Coroner Michael Sheffield that during the hours leading up to Luke’s death, he had appeared healthy and normal.

He said his son had come down from his bedroom at about 10.15pm on May 31 to make himself a cup of tea and some toast.

Afterwards, he and his wife went to bed, leaving Luke on his computer in his bedroom.

They said he received a message on his computer just after midnight, and someone in the house heard the King’s Academy pupil still up and about after 2am. But what happened after that they do not know.

“We wish we had gone in his room earlier,” said Luke’s mother, Maureen, of The Meadows, Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough.

“Life has been terrible since he died. He was boisterous – a proper boy. He loved his computer and his XBox.

He was very loving and he had a good sense of humour.

I can still hear him giggling now. Life is not the same.”

Mental health worker Karen Bibbings told the inquest that she saw Luke and his mother after concerns were raised over his temper outbursts at school and at home. However, she said there was no apparent problem, beyond the usual temper problems associated with teenagers.

Dr Mark Aszkenasy, consultant community physician for children at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said he saw Luke in 2005 after he complained to be suffering from breathlessness and chesttightening.

But he said he found no severe asthma condition or any chronic heart problem.

However, he said Luke was overweight and had expressed a desire to lose weight, so the doctor had helped him with a diet plan.

The inquest was adjourned and will resume at a later date, when pathologist Dr David Scoones will give evidence.