Boy sent home from Rotherham A&E died because of 'systems failures', family tells coroner
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died at Sheffield Children's Hospital on November 23 2022, eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital
The family of a five-year-old boy who died after he was sent home from A&E believe his death was a result of systems failures across two hospitals and other services, their lawyers have told a coroner.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died at Sheffield Children's Hospital on November 23 2022, eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital and sent home with antibiotics.
On Monday, a coroner fixed the date of Yusuf's inquest to start on April 13 next year, and gave a provisional ruling that this will not be a so-called Article 2 hearing.
Article 2 inquests are held when there are questions over whether the state failed in its duty to protect a person's life, and allows coroners to widen the scope of their investigation.
Adam Wagner KC, for Yusuf's family, argued the scope should be expanded because the family believe there were "a number of significant systems failures" in Sheffield and Rotherham which went beyond "individual nurses and doctors doing the wrong thing".
Mr Wagner told the pre-inquest review hearing: "It's arguable there was a systems failure and it's arguable that a systems failure caused the death."
The barrister told the court that Yusuf's parents will tell the inquest how they told doctors, nurses and paramedics "over and over again" that he was in a much worse medical situation than they were appreciating.
Susan Trigg, for Rotherham Hospital, told the hearing there was "no evidence of systems failings".
South Yorkshire assistant coroner Rebecca Connell said this was not an Article 2 inquest, from the information she had seen so far, but told the hearing at Sheffield's Medico-Legal Centre that she would keep this under review.
But Mrs Connell told the hearing she believed the scope of the inquest she had outlined - which includes Yusuf's care and treatment at the two hospitals, his GP surgery and by Yorkshire Ambulance Service, during an eight-day period - was "Article 2 compliant" in any case.
A second report into Yusuf's care was published by NHS England in July and his family then called for an inquest which was opened in August.
Mrs Connell said the full inquest will take three to four days and will begin on April 13.
Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to a GP with a sore throat and feeling unwell on November 15.
He was prescribed antibiotics by an advanced nurse practitioner.
Later that evening, his parents took him to Rotherham Hospital urgent and emergency care centre where he was seen in the early hours of the morning after a six-hour wait.
He was discharged with a diagnosis of severe tonsillitis and an extended prescription of antibiotics.
Yusuf's family have always said they were told "there are no beds and not enough doctors" in the emergency department at Rotherham, and that Yusuf should have been admitted and given intravenous antibiotics.
Two days later Yusuf was given further antibiotics by his GP for a possible chest infection, but his family became so concerned they called an ambulance and insisted the paramedics take him to Sheffield Children's Hospital rather than Rotherham.
Yusuf was admitted to the intensive care unit on November 21 but developed multi-organ failure and suffered several cardiac arrests which he did not survive.
The new report published in July included a range of recommendations for the NHS.
It concluded: "Our primary finding is that the parental concerns, particularly the mother's instinct that her child was unwell, were repeatedly not addressed across services."
Yusuf's mother Soniya Ahmed attended Monday's hearing, along with a number of other family members, including his uncle Zaheer Ahmed, who has led the campaign to fully investigate his nephew's death.
Mr Ahmed said on Monday: "The inquest is going to give us the answers that we still do not have for Yusuf.
"We still don't know how he's died and, hopefully, this inquest will go into detail and give us answers."
He said: "We are confident. The coroner said she is going to look at it as a thorough investigation and treat it as if it was an Article 2 inquest."