A PREMATURE baby who spent most of his life in hospital died from whooping cough, a coroner’s court heard.

Cody Green was just two months old when he died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on July 26.

He spent the first five weeks of his life in the neonatal unit at the hospital before his mum, Elizabeth Rainbow, and dad, Christopher Green, could take him home to Wychwood Close in Witney.

But Cody, who had breathing difficulties, was taken back to hospital two days before he died.

A statement by Dr Tim Whittington, a consultant in the paediatric intensive care unit, said the baby’s condition worsened overnight in the paediatric high dependency unit and he suffered a cardiac arrest.

The inquest heard he was pronounced dead at 12.22am.

Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter recorded a verdict of death by natural causes at an inquest into his death on Tuesday. The cause of death was given as the respiratory infection, whooping cough.