A newborn baby became the youngest victim of MRSA in Britain when he died in hospital after contracting the virulent superbug, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Luke Day was only 36 hours old when he died, though he may have been saved if medical staff had followed procedures and given him special care, an inquest into his death was told.

An attempt by doctors to resuscitate him failed after he was found lifeless in a cot beside his mother on the maternity ward at Ipswich Hospital in February 2005. An internal inquiry revealed that staff had failed to recognise signs that Luke could have been ill up to 16 hours before his death.

Specialists said they could not be sure MRSA was the cause of death, but Peter Dean, the Suffolk coroner, said that on the balance of probabilities Luke had died as a result of contracting it.

Staff at the hospital were unable to find the source of the bug, despite carrying out extensive inquiries.

Luke’s mother, Glynis Day, now 19, a kitchen assistant from Woodbridge, Suffolk, attended the hearing with Luke’s father, Kevin Fenton, 26. They criticised the hospital’s failure to detect warning signs. “I think it is disgusting,” Ms Day said. Mr Fenton said that hearing the details of how Luke died “makes me sick”.

Marion Malone, who conducted a postmortem examination at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, which found MRSA in Luke’s lungs, heart and spleen, told the hearing that she believed his death had been caused by septicaemia due to bacterial infection.

The inquest heard how Luke should have been tested for possible infections after staff noticed that his temperature was low, that he had low blood-sugar levels and he appeared “lethargic and slightly floppy”. Tests later revealed that his blood contained MRSA — methicillin-re-sistant staphylococcus aureus — as well as a less dangerous form ofstaphylococcus.

Peter Wilson, a consultant microbiologist at University College Hospital, London, who analysed Luke’s blood samples, said the balance of probability was that Luke’s death was caused by the bacteria. But he added that he could not say for sure if the MRSA strain was responsible or whether death was caused by septicaemia or toxins in the blood caused by the bacteria.

The coroner asked him: “Are you saying that there were signs that should have triggered referral and it would appear these signs were not picked up so Luke therefore did not have the benefit of an infection screen?

“Is it fair to say that his chances would have been better had protocol been followed? [That] we don’t know if the outcome would have been different, but [that] Luke would have had a better chance?”

Dr Wilson replied: “Yes, that is correct. It all depends on whether the signs that were present should have been spotted.”

He added that Luke could have been treated with antibiot-ics if infection was suspected, which could have saved him by preventing the septicaemia from spreading.

The inquest heard how Luke weighed a healthy 7lb 7oz when born naturally at 6.53am on February 2, 2005. Staff had no concerns about his condition, but then found he was “grunting”, had low glucose levels in his blood and a lower than normal temperature at 2.10am the next day.

Jane Gosling, the senior midwife, was later attending to Ms Day when she noticed that Luke was cold. He was immediately transferred for resuscitation but was declared dead 30 minutes later.

The internal hospital inquiry report said there were deviations from clinical guidelines and that a paediatrician should have been called to examine Luke because of his low temperature and blood-sugar levels.

It added that some of the clinical guidelines were ambiguous, but that there was “no overarching coordination of Luke’s care”.

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