A mother-to-be and her unborn baby died after she was hit by a swinging garden gate while eight months pregnant, an inquest heard.

Kellie Ann Jenkins, 19, died from blood poisoning in a hospital operating theatre after losing her baby.

An inquest was told she was taken to hospital where examinations showed that her unborn son had died.

But as surgeons tried to deliver the unborn baby by Caesarean section, Ms Jenkins became seriously ill and died on the operating table.

A post-mortem examination showed she had died from blood poisoning in Sunderland Royal Hospital.

A year later, Ms Jenkins' partner, John Brewer, his mother Christine, and Ms Jenkins' grandparents, George, 59, and Hazel Jenkins, 57, have still to come to terms with their loss.

Mrs Jenkins, of Sunderland, said: "All she wanted to do was settle down with John and start a family. She was a real fighter - the doctors said they had never seen anyone fight for breath like she did."

The inquest at Sunderland Magistrates' Court was told Ms Jenkins suffered pain after being hit by the gate at her home in Pennywell, Sunderland.

The following day, Mr Brewer, took her to the city's Royal Hospital, where doctors told her that her baby would be stillborn. Ms Jenkins was prepared for a Caesarian birth, but died in the operating theatre, on January 21, last year.

Dr Helen Cameron, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Sunderland Royal, said: "Her death was very much unexpected. I will never forget the experience - it was dreadful."

Recording a verdict of natural causes, Coroner Derek Winter described such a death as "extraordinarily rare".