A doctor who carried out heart surgery on a baby girl who was one of four infants to die at the John Radcliffe Hospital in a matter of months told an inquest today there were no problems within the unit at the time.

Nathalie Lo was 23-days-old when she died at the hospital following an operation to treat a complex congenital condition only identified after her birth, the coroner was told.

Children's heart operations were suspended at the unit in March after three other babies subsequently died.

They had all been treated by the same surgeon, Caner Salih.

An NHS review recommended earlier this month that no more paediatric cardiac surgery should be carried out at the hospital, concluding it was the least likely out of 11 centres in England to meet new quality standards.

Nathalie died in the early hours of the morning of December 22 after Mr Salih performed a procedure to insert a shunt in her heart to allow blood to be pumped to her lungs properly.

He told an inquest in Oxford that although there had been a postponement of her operation due to equipment, on the day of the operation everything was in place.

"At the time of the surgery I had the right equipment for the procedure," he said.

"There were no questions in my mind, not just in Nathalie's case but in any of the procedures I have done, that any of the procedures I have done were compromised by not having the right equipment.

"I would simply not have done it."

Asked about the atmosphere at the unit, Mr Salih - who was consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at the hospital but now works at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London - replied: "Before the procedure there were no problems at all.

"We were happy, we were a team. We had mutual respect for each other and we still do."

Nathalie's mother Aida Lo, of Balfour Road, Oxford, had a normal pregnancy and delivery, the inquest heard.

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Nicholas Gardiner said there was no evidence Nathalie died because of her surgery - which, the inquest heard, was assessed by medics at the hospital as having a 95 per cent success rate.

He said: "Although I suspect the degree of risk was explained to them (Nathalie's parents), if someone tells us there is a 95 per cent chance of success I think we all assume we are going to be in the 95 per cent.

"Sadly, that's not true. Somebody is going to be in the five per cent.

"It does appear to me that the shunt was an appropriate surgical procedure and, so far as I can tell, properly carried out."

The coroner said he believed Nathalie died as a result of the "total" of the problems which added up to take their toll on her body.

He concluded: "I have no reason to think she died because of the treatment she received, but rather that she died despite it.”