A HEARTBROKEN teenage mum today spoke of her double tragedy after the mystery death of her six-month-old baby just two weeks after she suffered a miscarriage.

Sheila Moreland and her boyfriend Paul Johnstone were today being comforted at the family home in St Margaret's Way, Blackburn.

A former pupil at Blackburn's Queen's Park High School, Sheila, 17, said her son Ryan Lee Paul Johnstone was a happy baby who had been eating and playing just hours before she discovered he was dead.

She went on: "I'd fed him at 4.45am, winded him and we had gone back to sleep. He always slept on my chest, in bed with me and Paul. He woke me up at about 6.45am because he was kicking and I brought him downstairs, put him in the highchair and gave him a bottle.

"We played for a while, until he was tired and went back upstairs to bed at about 7.30am. He fell asleep and so did I. The next thing I woke up and he rolled off me. He wasn't breathing. He was dead."

Ryan's father Paul, also 17, then tried to give the tot the kiss of life while Sheila and her mother Patricia Lynn telephoned for an ambulance.

Mrs Lynn, who has nine children, said: "She was screaming, I was screaming, everybody was screaming. It was awful. Both Paul and I tried to bring Ryan back to life.

"The whole family has been left devastated by this. We haven't been able to bury Ryan because of tests being carried out and we feel like we are in limbo, unable to grieve."

Sheila, who was two months pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage at home in the bathroom the week before Christmas, said Ryan had been born 11 weeks prematurely in Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital in June.

He spent the first five weeks of his life in the special care baby unit at the hospital in Haslingden Road but made good progress and the young couple were allowed to take him home. "He was a really happy baby," said Sheila.

"He was always playful and every time anyone came in he would want them to play with him. He was absolutely gorgeous and just starting to gurgle and make noises.

"I don't understand what has happened or why he didn't wake me up if there was something wrong."

Mrs Lynn said her daughter was struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

She went on: "Emotionally, I think the worst is yet to come. She cannot sleep in the bedroom where it happened."

Sheila went on: "I can go in there during the day but not at night because I just see visions of Ryan lying there. Paul cannot stay here for a long time at the moment because it brings tears to his eyes all the time.

"We're lucky we have a big family that is here to help both of us, but it feels like I am in a dream at the moment. Like it is not real."

An inquest was opened by Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley coroner Michael Singleton on Friday. He was told a post mortem examination had been carried out and that the results of further tests were awaited.

Adjourning the hearing until January 25, Mr Singleton said: "At that stage a decision can be made as to what further action is necessary."

Det Insp Bob Eastwood, of Blackburn CID, said inquiries were ongoing.

He went on: "So far they have failed to reveal why he has died and we are having to carry out further tests.

"This is especially tragic because the parents are so young and because of the time of year the child died. Officers in the case have been very distressed too."

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