A INFANT health expert has told an inquest into the death of baby Charlie Jermyn that it is incredibly hard to recognise when a baby is ill.

Professor Peter Fleming, professor of infant health at Bristol University, described the events that led to Charlie's death as a "sequence of minor failings."

Charlie Jermyn died in May last year just 30 hours after he was born. His mother Hayley from Penryn had been sent home from hospital just hours earlier after being told she was not ready to give birth.

Professor Fleming said: "It's incredibly hard to recognise if a baby is ill.

"Recognising the subtle signs is incredibly hard.

"Grunting at that age is a really serious problem. Had Charlie been in hospital when he developed grunting, he would have almost certainly been seen by staff.

"Had he been in hospital and been receiving appropriate treatment, then on the balance of probability, I think he would have survived."

"I think the situation these very caring mid wives were working in led them to be not aware of the factors.

"It was a sequence of minor failings."

Julie Frohlich, a consultant midwife asked by coroner Emma Carlyon to look at the circumstances around Charlie's care, said: "The maternity support worker appears to have dealt with the phone call as a feeding problem rather than symptomatic of an underlying illness.

She added that five hours was an "unacceptable time" to wait in labour when Hayley was "imminently in labour at the very least" during that time.

She said the two clinical factors missed were Charlie's altered behaviour and responsiveness and him being sleepy and refusing food.

She said: "I think baby Charlie should have been transferred into hospital and not to do so was a missed opportunity."

She added: "It's important that individual midwives are not blamed - it's a Trust issue."

"Had she [Hayley} remained in hospital, it's likely the signs of sepsis and the grunting would have been picked up."

The inquest in Truro, Cornwall resumes today when the coroner Emma Carlyon is expected to deliver her verdict.