A mother wept for her dead baby yesterday - only days away from giving birth again.

Annette Whalley's first baby, Liam, was just three days old when he died of a rare condition last August.

Now Annette, 40, is expecting a baby in 17 days time. Her husband Stephen, 29, a mechanical technician from Redcar, Teesside, said yesterday: "We have had a lot of tests done and they have all come back clear."

Doctors have closely monitored the unborn child after Liam's sudden death, his inquest was told yesterday.

The hearing in Middlesbrough was given a minute-by-minute report of the hour-long flight by three doctors and three nurses to save him in his incubator at the James Cook University Hospital, in the town.

Lorna Gillespie, a paediatric registrar, said that they restarted his heart time and time again but he could not win the battle.

Finally the grieving couple of Hundale Crescent, Redcar, were given him to hold.

Doctor Sunil Kumar Sinha, clinical director of the hospital's neonatal services said: "It was a sudden unexpected death at that time, but it does give a clue to the subsequent baby.

"With Liam it was too late."

Liam was born in the Middlesbrough General Hospital.

Doctor Peter Cooper, a Home Office Pathologist, said that the condition medium-chain acyl CoA dehydrayenase deficiency was very rare.

A verdict of natural causes was recorded