Boy, 5, died after being despatched house from hospital – probe amidst ‘cowl up’ declare

The family of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from hospital with tonsillitis antibiotics will get a new independent review into the case after concerns were flagged.

The boss of the NHS has authorised a fresh investigation into the death of Yusuf Mahmud Nazir after the family said a review into the hospital was a “cover-up”. Zaheer Ahmed, the uncle of Yusuf, who died in November 2022, welcomed it as a step forward in finding out what went wrong with his nephew’s treatment.

Mr Ahmed on Thursday told the Mirror: “It’s really good news for us because we’ve really, really had to fight for it and for somebody to listen to us.” The family have criticised an independent report into the death of Yusuf as they claim it left out 13 pages of evidence which they say was relevant.

They said the report into the NHS hospital in Rotherham had not included crucial CCTV footage, WhatsApp messages, videos, pictures and witness testimonies that they said showed the seriousness of Yusuf’s condition was ignored. A senior professor and consultant paediatrician has now found at least five major flaws in the investigation and has urged NHS boss Amanda Pritchard to order a new review.

Mr Ahmed said: “We know what’s happened and it’s not what’s been said in the report, and we know it’s incorrect and it’s been covered up. So we’re really happy that somebody’s listened to us and somebody’s picked out the same points that we’ve had concerns with as well.

“Most importantly we want to make changes as we don’t want it to happen to anybody else. We need them to rectify the problem and without them identifying there is a problem, they won’t be able to rectify it.”

Prof Simon Kenny highlighted variation between videos showing Yusuf’s deterioration with descriptions of his condition in the report, which was commissioned by the NHS. He highlighted that Yusuf had not been seen by a consultant paediatrician, just days before he died, and recommended a senior paediatric respiratory physician investigate whether critical care should have been requested earlier. Prof Kenny also criticised unnecessary redactions in a report given to the family.

Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to A&E at Rotherham General Hospital with breathing difficulties eight days before he died. After waiting for more than six hours before being seen at around 5am, Mr Ahmed said the doctor saw Yusuf for about five to eight minutes, put a stick in his mouth, said he had tonsillitis and sent him home with oral antibiotics.

Yusuf was struggling to breathe and was unable to drink, swallow or talk, the family said. As his condition worsened, three days later the family took Yusuf to Sheffield Children’s Hospital, where he died five days later on November 23 after developing pneumonia.

In February Yusuf’s family met Wes Streeting, who is now the Health Secretary, in Parliament. They have praised the politician for his role in helping them secure a new investigation.

At the time, Mr Streeting said: “There’s a fundamental thing here and that is that no child should be dying of tonsillitis. The report that has been published varies enormously with the report that the family were shown only days before final publication.

“It has led the family to feel like their voices have been lost, the experience that Yusuf and his family went through has been whitewashed and sanitised so what we now see in public is only a partial account of what really happened.”

The NHS does not comment on individual cases. But Dr Jo Beahan, Medical Director at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, previously said: “All of us were incredibly saddened by Yusuf’s tragic death. Our thoughts and sympathies continue to be with Yusuf’s family.

“We fully cooperated with the independent investigation into Yusuf’s death which was published in October, which found the medical care provided to Yusuf in Rotherham’s Urgent and Emergency Care Centre was appropriate, and there was nothing that could have been done differently that would have changed the tragic outcome.”