A MOTHER was today bracing herself for the trauma of a two-week inquest which will finally give her the answers over the death of her son.

Jake McGeough died at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool in July 2001.

Nearly two and a half years later, and after 12 adjournments, the inquest into the 18-month old toddler's death was finally expected to go ahead at Liverpool Coroner's Court today.

His mother, Keira, of Leicester Road, Blackburn, planned to attend today's inquest with members of her family for support.

Jake was taken by his parents to Queen's Park Hospital in Blackburn in July 2001 because they believed he was suffering from a chest infection. After an initial check he was taken by ambulance to Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool, where he died three days later.

After four months, the hospital admitted that negligence had "caused or contributed" to Jake's death when staff administered the muscle-relaxing drug vecuronium.

An internal investigation into the case was conducted earlier this year but the findings were not made public.

In April, the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was "insufficient evidence" to pursue criminal proceedings against two nurses from Alder Hay Hospital, who had been suspended after Jake's death.

Keira said: "I hope that we can get the answers now and finally get it done with.

"The delays have been due to a combination of things and it has been a long time, but we will have to pull ourselves through.

"It is going to be quite upsetting to hear all the things about Jake after all this time.

"But we will have to take it all one day at a time.

"I have three other kids to look after.

"I hope that once this has finished, and once we know what happened, we can finally close a chapter in in our lives.

"I have a lot of questions that have been unanswered so if this inquest can answer them it will be very helpful to me."