Six-week-old Aaron Havard had undergone routine stomach surgery

Dr Robert Falconer accidentally pumped air into the bloodstream of baby Aaron Havard after an operation at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.

Dr Falconer, who denies a charge of gross negligence wept at Swansea Crown Court during questioning.

He told Mr Havard, who was in court: "I'd like to take this opportunity to reiterate my apologies."

"Those events have had a profound effect on me, I'm sure the memories will be with me forever," he said.

"I can only try to see how infinitely worse it has been for you. I'm so very sorry."

Aaron had undergone a "routine" operation in April 2002, to correct a stomach disorder.

I realised something was wrong. Aaron's blood pressure dropped and I immediately told the surgeon we had a problem Dr Robert Falconer

To ensure his stomach had not been punctured during the operation, surgeon Kashev Pradham asked anaesthetist 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.

Earlier in the week, the jury heard how Dr Falconer later told police: "I lifted the towels and looked for an open ended tube and connected it to the drip instead."

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

The air should have gone into a tube running through his nose and into his stomach and Dr Falconer, 45, admitted making a "catastrophic" mistake.

Dr Robert Falconer denies a charge of gross negligence

He told the jury on Thursday he had extensive experience as a paediatric anaesthetist, and had taken part in at least 40 similar operations.

"I realised something was wrong. Aaron's blood pressure dropped and I immediately told the surgeon we had a problem," he added.

Dr Falconer massaged Aaron's heart before a specialist paediatric cardiac arrest team took over and fought for an hour to save the baby.

Dr Falconer said the only chance to save the baby was to get a thin line into a vein, feed it directly into a heart chamber, and physically suck out the air.

But attempts were unsuccessful.

'Very sorry'

"We could not obtain a cardiac output. He was dead. I was devastated," said Dr Falconer.

"I left and wept. Dr Anthony Murphy (a fellow anaesthetist) came with me to console me.

"After a while we went to see Aaron's parents. They had been waiting for news.

"I spoke to them. I said things had gone terribly wrong.

"Mr Havard asked me 'is my son dead?' I said, 'yes, I am very sorry'.

"Obviously they were very distressed."

Dr Falconer was asked by his counsel Kieran Coonan QC, if he wished to say anything else.

Turning to Mr Havard, who was sitting in the court's public gallery, he broke down and apologised.

Dr Falconer had said the operation had been "absolutely normal".

He said he believed he had injected the air into the right tube.

Opening the case 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."

The case continues.