South Yorkshire, England: A five-year-old boy, who was admitted to Rotherham General Hospital in South Yorkshire, died after he was sent home from the hospital.
Zaheer Ahmed, the uncle of the five-year-old victim, said that he begged and begged but the hospital administration told him that they had no space and enough doctors to tend to patients, Sky News said.
The grieving family of the boy, who died after being sent home from hospital, he would still be alive if they had been listened to by the hospital management.
Ahmed said that he “begged and begged” for his nephew Yusuf Mahmud Nazir to be admitted to the hospital but he was told that there were no beds and not enough doctors.
Yusuf, who first complained of a sore throat on 13 November, was taken to the hospital by his parents, where he was prescribed antibiotics.
When Yusuf’s health did not improve, his parents drove him to the emergency department of Rotherham General Hospital.
Ahmed said that they waited all night to be seen by a doctor. After Yusuf was examined by a doctor he was sent home, even though the doctor treating his nephew said that “it was the worst case of tonsillitis he had ever seen”.
He said that his nephew was struggling to breathe, could not swallow and he was clearly in a distressed state.
He said that at home after Yusuf’s condition deteriorated further, the worried parents called an ambulance and he was taken to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital but unfortunately, it was too late to save his life as the infection had spread to the young boy’s lungs and caused multiple organ failures, which had resulted in several cardiac arrests.
Ahmed said that his nephew stopped breathing and he breathed his last.
“If they had treated him, he would be here with us now,” he said adding that his nephew would have been with him playing like he used to.
He said: “We lost a beautiful child and it is not his fault. We begged and begged for help but we could not get it. We did not get the help and treatment we wanted”.
He said that they kept telling them what the family wanted them to do. They said that they have no space for him and he could complain to the big ones, who only gave them one doctor’.”
Ahmed said that even if it saved one child’s life, it would have saved one parent going through what they were going through. It would have saved one family to suffer what they have suffered.
Chief Executive of Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust Dr Richard Jenkins told Sky News that they have started a thorough investigation into the incident. He said that they have also contacted the family and they will continue to do so as part of their investigation.
A spokesperson for the NHS said that the NHS had seen a steep rise in the number of children requiring invasive ventilation with the respiratory syncytial virus in recent weeks, and as a result, pressure on paediatric intensive care units had been higher than usual.
The spokesperson said that the NHS had tried and tested surge plans in place which included mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure services were able to provide the highest quality care to all children and they had reminded local areas about the guidance.”
The Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that all children deserved the highest levels of care and they were taking urgent action to ensure no families had to experience such kinds of tragedies.
