"She fought so much": Family pay tribute to 'supergirl' baby who died just weeks after birth without leaving hospital

The family of a baby who tragically died just five weeks after birth have paid tribute to their 'little sunflower'. Sophia Mannan was born just after 29 weeks by an 'emergency' Caesarean section on August 6 last year, but sadly died on September 14.

Sophia was the second child of Abdul Mannan and Sarah Farkas, of Oldham, with everything 'fine' during most of the pregnancy. This was until August 5 when Abdul and Sarah noticed Sophia wasn't moving as much as usual.

They went to the Royal Oldham Hospital the next day where it was found Sophia had an irregular heartbeat. Staff decided that Sarah should be placed onto a 'category two' C-section, meaning she should be seen within 75 minutes.

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The family raised concerns about being placed into category two and not category one at the inquest at Rochdale Coroners' Court, as category one would have meant the procedure was done sooner. Staffing issues at the trust and August 6 being a particularly busy day were also raised during the hearing.

Paediatric histopathologist Dr Melanie Newbould was able to determine a cause of death for Sophia as hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, brain damage which resulted from not enough oxygen getting to Sophia's brain. It is not known exactly when this could have happened, especially as the pregnancy seemed to be going fine.

This meant Sophia was born with 'no respiratory drive,' Dr Newbould said, and her situation 'never improved'. Sophia was placed on a ventilator after birth, but there was no improvement to her health.

Doctors and midwives who dealt with Sarah and the birth that day said the procedure itself was