Boy, 3, died in pond fall

A three-year-old boy who fell into a garden pond at his aunt's house died despite desperate attempts to save him, an inquest heard.

Tyler Wood, of Beechdale, appeared to be rallying en route to hospital but his condition deteriorated.

Tyler was visiting his aunt with his mother in Great Barr when he is believed to have jumped over a fence separating her garden from a 5ft deep pond she had built, before falling in.

Hospital notes indicate Tyler, of Lister Close, may have been in the water for 20 minutes before he was found. It then took 40 minutes to resuscitate him.

He was taken to Sandwell General Hospital before being transferred to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and finally Walsall Manor where he died on February 22.

Pathologist Dr Ken Scott said he died from heart failure and in his opinion it was "inevitable from the outset" Tyler could not survive.

He said: "Twenty minutes is too long in my opinion."

The inquest at Manor Hospital today was told Tyler's mother Stephanie Harris and aunt Nicola Mattocks initially believed he had wandered from the garden in Tanhouse Avenue to a nearby nature reserve to find some of his young relatives and went to search for him there.

When they returned they searched the streets before going back to the house to search the garden.

His aunt who found him said: "I went to check the garden and I saw him lying face down in the pool."

The hearing continues.