Baby Aaron had gone into hospital for a routine stomach operation

A colleague of the defendant anaesthetist Dr Robert Falconer - who denies gross negligence - told Swansea Crown Court that an emergency resuscitation team spent more than an hour trying to save Aaron Havard.

Aaron had undergone a "routine" operation at the hospital in April, 2002, to correct a stomach disorder and to ensure his stomach had not been punctured during the operation surgeon Kashev Pradham asked Dr Falconer to "pump" up his stomach with air so any leakage would be obvious.

But two 20ml doses of air were fed into a drip leading directly into his bloodstream instead.

An emergency resuscitation team spent more than an hour trying to save Aaron but he died.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, consultant anaesthetist Dr Anthony Murphy said doctors tried to feed a narrow tube directly into an artery and to his heart in an attempt to suck out the bubbles but failed.

Afterwards, Dr Murphy told the jury, Dr Falconer was "completely distressed, a broken man".

The anaesthetist injected air through the wrong tube, the court heard

Another colleague, Martin Garry, told the court on Tuesday that Dr Falconer was still working as a colleague at Singleton Hospital, Swansea.

Asked by the judge Mr Justice Douglas Brown, to explain to the jury what he meant, Mr Garry said Dr Falconer was practising in both private and NHS work.

"I hold him in very high regard," he said.

"I would chose him above anybody else to anaesthetise me or any member of my family. I still hold that view today."

Opening the case for the prosecution on Monday, Patrick Harrington QC said the surgeon had made a "colossal mistake" which was repeated when, not realising the error, he injected air for a second time.

"He made a dreadful, inexcusable mistake," he told the jury.

"The result was catastrophic. Injections of air into the body have fatal consequences, and that is something which would be well known to Dr Falconer," he added.

The court heard how the 45-year-old father-of-three, from Sketty in Swansea, told police following his arrest: "I could see what I was doing and I got it terribly wrong.

"I lifted the towels and looked for an open ended tube and connected it to the drip instead."

The jury heard Dr Falconer later broke the news of baby Aaron's death directly to his parents Philip and Kathryn Havard, who had been waiting in a room off the operating theatre.

"He told them 'I am very sorry. I have made a mistake. It's gone terribly wrong'," Mr Harrington said.

Mr Havard, 35, asked him, "Are you trying to tell me our baby's dead?"

Dr Falconer replied, "I am very sorry."

Mrs Havard, a 29-year-old nursery nurse, was physically sick at being told of her son's death.

The trial continues.