A newborn baby dying of low oxygen levels and a heart defect was treated by a paediatrician who thought the girl might have had a respiratory problem, a coroner has heard.

Thea Flaskett died at Redcliffe Hospital, north of Brisbane, at 4.17am on September 11, 2023, a little more than four hours after she was born.

Thea’s parents, Meg and James Flaskett, say they are hopeful the family will finally get some answers after anxiously waiting two years for the inquest.

Queensland Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher on Tuesday heard evidence from specialist doctors who treated Thea in person or who were consulted remotely.

Dr Didier Ngandu Tshamala testified he arrived at the hospital as the on-call paediatrician at 12.58am after Thea was born and staff had started to perform CPR.

Counsel assisting Geoffrey Diehm asked Tshamala what he assessed Thea’s condition to be soon after he arrived.

“At that point in time it was more of a respiratory disease or infectious disease,” Tshamala said.

“They said she was born in good condition. She was with her mother for the first five minutes.”

Tshamala agreed that soon after he arrived Thea started showing the need for intensive resuscitation.

During the opening of the inquest on Monday, Gallagher heard an autopsy revealed Thea had a previously undiagnosed condition of transposition of the great arteries.

Along with transposition, which affects blood through the heart, Thea had other conditions that could have contributed to her death.

Diehm asked Tshamala if it occurred to him while treating Thea that she might have had a transposition heart defect.

Tshamala said transposition was on a large list of conditions that could have matched Thea’s symptoms and he considered it “in a general way”.

In response to the Flaskett family’s barrister, Sarah Lane, Tshamala said he had not considered Thea’s case to be high-risk despite her birth being induced because of concerns over a low heart rate.

Gallagher heard the neonatal retrieval service arrived at Redcliffe Hospital at 2.05am with specialist equipment including an automatic ventilator.

Tshamala said Thea was unable to be moved by ambulance to a larger hospital in Brisbane because she suffered cardiac arrest.

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital senior staff neonatologist Dr Pieter Koorts testified about how he arranged for the service to attend Redcliffe Hospital.

“It was a quick turnaround given the time of night,” he said.

Koorts said transposition would be high on his list of possible diagnoses if at the time he had access to all the information available about Thea’s birth.

Gallagher previously heard testimony Thea’s transposition was not detected in pre-birth ultrasounds and if it had been, she would have been sent to a major Brisbane hospital for her birth.

Barrister for Redcliffe Hospital, April Freeman, asked Koorts if Thea’s survival would have been guaranteed if she was born at a hospital that could immediately insert a catheter into her heart as a precursor to surgery.

“Even at a tertiary centre with a cardiologist on standby, the outcome is not assured,” Koorts said.

The inquest is due to run in Brisbane for another four days.