PREMATURE baby Sami Ahmed won the first round of his fight for survival but could do nothing to defend himself against the infection that eventually claimed his tragically short life.

An inquest heard that Sami was just two months old when he was hit by pneumonia which killed him within hours.

He died in his mother's arms after doctors switched off the life support machine which had kept him going.

The boy's parents, Irfan Ahmed and his wife Saira Irfan, then of Randal Street, Blackburn, but now living in Darwen, wept as details of the child's fight for life were revealed to an inquest in Blackburn.

Their fourth child, he weighed just 4lbs when he was born six weeks prematurely and with a skin condition that required daily treatment. He spent the first three weeks of his life in the intensive care unit in Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn. But after his discharge the midwife and health visitors were all pleased with his progress.

The week before his death he had weighed 7lbs and was responding to the daily application of creams and the iron supplements he received by injection.

Mrs Irfan told the inquest that Sami had been placed in his cot at the side of her bed on Friday January 18. He had drunk his evening bottle but had not finished his feed in the early hours of the morning. She had rubbed on his cream and he had seemed contented in her arms.

But the following morning Mrs Irfan became concerned when Sami refused to feed and he felt limp in her arms. His eyes were partly open and he wasn't moving much and when her husband took hold of the child he said they should call the ambulance.

When Sami arrived at hospital his blood pressure was very low and doctors said his condition was serious. An hour later they told the couple that Sami was not breathing by himself and that there was little chance of survival.

A team from the Royal Manchester Children's hospital was called. They discovered that all Sami's organs were stopping and asked permission to switch off the life support machine.

Mrs Irfan said: "I was allowed to hold Sami as he died."

Consultant paediatric pathologist, Dr Melanie Newbold, told the inquest that Sami had died of pneumonia which she said could affect young babies very quickly.

She said: "Within an hour or two it can stop them breathing."

Deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton recorded a verdict of natural causes.