A TODDLER who had spent most of his life dependent on a machine to help him breathe died after a tube on his ventilation system became detached.

An inquest heard that an alarm would have sounded within 15 seconds of the incident but a computer record showed the alarm had been sounding for 26 minutes before the pipe was reconnected.

Aaroon Mahmood's mum Kalsoom Malik today paid tribute to her son and said: "He was a lovely little boy, always lively and ready to smile.

"He was always playing about. He thought he was playing a game, playing with the ventilation tube."

Mrs Malik, of Brunel Walk, Blackburn, told the inquest that she had fallen asleep watching television in the same room as Aaroon who developed chronic breathing problems when he was ten months old.

Mrs Malik said her son had been admitted to Booth Hall Children's Hospital, Manchester, and had remained there until shortly after his third birthday when he was allowed home.

The family home was specially adapted and carers were at the house in shifts between 10pm and 7.30am every day. Only child Aaroon had two ventilators, one which allowed him to move round the house and one for sleeping.

Mrs Malik said: "We'll never know what happened. I was in shock when I woke up and found him not breathing. It was awful."

She said Aaroon had undergone hospital tests. "They couldn't find out what was wrong with him," she said. "The doctors said he could only manage 45 seconds off the ventilator before he started to struggle for breath."

On the day of his death in October, Aaroon had been fed normally at about 5pm and his mother had put him on his night ventilator and he had gone to sleep. Mrs Malik said she did a few jobs before falling asleep in the same room.

At 7pm she was woken by the sound of the alarm. She said Aaroon frequently disconnected the pipes himself and it was a simple task to reconnect them.

But after reconnecting the pipe Mrs Malik realised there was something wrong as the alarm continued to sound because Aaroon was not ventilating. She called for an ambulance and her husband Zahid Mahmoodtried to revive the child.

Care assistant Janine Toner told the inquest that she had been caring for Aaroon until 3pm that day. She confirmed that from time to time he would disconnect some of the pipes on his ventilator.

Keith Saxon, a technical expert, told the inquest that he had examined the night ventilator in the presence of the police and it was working properly. He said the computer memory showed that the machine had been disconnected at the patient end for 26 minutes. He said the pattern that followed was consistent with the mother reconnecting the pipes and then the paramedics disconnecting them to try to resuscitate the child.

Consultant paediatric pathologist, Dr Melanie Newbold, said that Aaroon had died as a result of brain damage sustained during the period when he could not breathe and his heart stopped because the mechanical ventilation was not working.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Michael Singleton said it was clear that the ventilation pipe had been disconnected for 26 minutes and that Aaroon himself had disconnected it.

"This little boy had terrible medical problems," said Mr Singleton. "There is no doubt you were more than prepared to put up with this and do everything you could for him. It seems the events of that day were a terrible tragedy."