A BABY came back to life' minutes after medics stopped resuscitating her and told her dad she had died, an inquest heard.

But the hearing was told how brave Utthara Arun's fight for life lasted just 10 hours, with a lack of oxygen to the brain causing her death.

Speaking after the inquest, her grieving parents Dr Arun Kumaravelu and Dr Kavitha Arun, of Delphinium Way, Lower Darwen, who work at the hospital where their baby died, said: "She was a fighter to the end."

Coroner Michael Singleton heard that Utthara's heartbeat deterio-rated and Kavitha had to undergo an emergency Caesarean section at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, hours after arriving on March 28. Utthara was delivered 11 minutes later but hospital staff became immediately concerned about the baby, the inquest heard.

Dr Beale von Bremen, a paediatrician at the hospital, said: "The baby was blue and there were no signs of life when I arrived in theatre two minutes after she was delivered. After 22 minutes she had four doses of adrenalin and there was still no sign of life and doctors decided to stop resuscitation.

"At this point I went to see the baby's father to tell him the news his baby had died but we were called back in as after 24 minutes the baby let out a gasp of breath."

Two minutes later the baby's heartbeat had shot up and the baby was put on ventilating equipment in intensive care. During this point the parents were able to touch and see Utthara. However at 10.30pm, despite attempts to resuscitate her, she lost her fight for life. Mr Singleton said he was satisfied Utthara died as a result of a lack of oxygen to the brain and said the hospital could not have prevented the death, stating: "There is no reason to believe her death was anything other than naturally occurring."

Speaking after the case, Dr Kumaravelu, 30, said: "We have lost our precious girl, a little treasure. We are not angry.

"We were told she died then started breathing again. It gave us hope and showed she was a fighter to the end."

But his wife said she would have liked the hospital to have passed on their concerns about the baby's deteriorating heartbeat before she agreed to an epidural - an injection to relieve labour pains.

She said: "The outcome would probably not have been different but I would have liked the hospital to have intervened earlier."

But Dr Chi-Ning Mo, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital, said the fatal damage to Utthara occurred before she was born and added: "The gasp of breath is a prime human instinct to protect the vital organs but this came too late for the baby as the damage done was ultimately too much for her to live and any early intervention would not have brought a different outcome."