The heartbroken parents of a baby who died when a hospital procedure went wrong say the results of an investigation into her death were worse than they ever thought.

Nigel and Sian Trevelyan, from Pease Pottage near Crawley, spoke out after a damning independent report into their 20-month-old daughter Indya's death was handed to The Argus.

The investigation catalogued a series of failures leading up to the death of Indya four days after being admitted with croup, a common childhood illness.

Among the findings were that a crucial X-ray was not examined for more than 12 hours and a senior surgeon did not have the necessary training.

It also revealed out of date guidelines had been used by staff and a shortage of specialist medical equipment at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton.

Yesterday Brighton and Sussex University's Hospital NHS Trust issued an apology to the family.

Hospital bosses have organised a meeting with the family and have drawn up a series of guidelines to prevent further failings.

But Mr Trevelyan said although he was pleased with the findings of the report he would never be able to forgive the hospital where his daughter spent her last hours.

Mr Trevelyan, 44, said: "We are pleased the enquiry has been so open and so thorough. There was a lot we suspected was the case to do with the medical handling of Indya but we were not qualified to question it ourselves – we've waited a long time for this day, and we're glad it's finally here.

"It is unbelievable how many things have gone wrong.

"If it was a one-off mistake we might be able to forgive it, but there are so many things that have gone wrong, I'm not sure we can.

"We appreciate that the trust did try to address the issues after Indya's death but the report has opened up even more areas of worry.

"There were several things we were not aware of at all, including the extent to which guidelines being used were totally out of date and the severe delay between carrying out Indya's X-ray at 4pm in the evening and then actually examining it at 4am the following morning.

"As it turned out that X-ray actually showed Indya's air ways were almost completely closed. As soon as they realised she was rushed to theatre, but had they known it sooner they may have been able to transfer her to a London hospital."

The Trevelyans, who now live at Pease Pottage with their four-month-old son Leon, said they are still haunted by Indya's death.

Indya was admitted to hospital on April 15 with a severe cough and breathlessness.

Two days later doctors carried out an emergency tracheostomy to find out what was blocking her airways.

The procedure appeared to have been a success but after the surgeon left the theatre her breathing tube became dislodged and she suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest.