Baby suffocated in his sleep

Little Mark Betker was born eight weeks premature and as a result had problems with his left leg which was not correctly joined at the hip.

Today's hearing in Bradford was told that he had an operation to try to correct the problem in December last year which had left him with a cast that ran from his chest down to his left ankle.

Coroner Roger Whittaker was told that the pot had left him completely immobile.

To try to make the youngster more comfortable at night his mother Shina Betker had been advised by the hospital to lay him on a bean bag when he went to sleep.

But the inquest heard how tragedy struck just a week before Christmas Day when little Mark slipped from the bean bag and suffocated as he was unable to lift himself because of the cast.

Miss Betker told the hearing that the cast weighed as much as the child himself and she told Mr Whittaker: "I think that if he had not had the pot on he would be here now."

She described how she went to sleep in the same bed as Mark, in their home in Ravenscliffe Avenue, Bradford, and realised what had happened when she woke in the morning.

An ambulance was called but Mark was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Consultant pathologist Dr Philip Batman, who carried out a post-mortem, said that although sudden infant death syndrome was a possible cause of death, it was more likely that Mark had asphyxiated.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Whittaker said that putting Mark on a bean bag had seemed like a good idea.

He added: "Mark was placed in a plaster cast which immobilised him effectively. I'm told that it would have been roughly the same weight as he was and quite restrictive.

"Following advice, Mark's mother and grandmother looked after Mark by making sure he was placed on a bean bag. Sadly, on December 18 whilst he was asleep he slipped from the bean bag and, accepting Dr Batman's view as to the cause of death, he asphyxiated in that position being unable to help himself."