Family ‘begged for antibiotics’ and informed ‘ambulances aren’t taxis’ earlier than son, 5, died
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died in November 2022, eight days after he was sent home from hospital with antibiotics. His family met Health Secretary Wes Streeting to discuss their campaign for Yusuf’s Law, with an inquest due in April
The family of Yusuf Mahmud Nazir, who tragically passed away aged just five after being discharged from A&E, have told how they pleaded for antibiotics and were informed an ambulance was “not a taxi” before he died.
Now, as they campaign for ‘Yusuf’s Law’ to encourage more consideration of parents’ intuition, his family have claimed that their little boy has already saved “hundreds and hundreds of children’s lives”.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir sadly lost his life at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in November 2022, eight days after he was examined at Rotherham Hospital and sent home with antibiotics. This week, Yusuf’s family met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting in London to discuss their campaign for Yusuf’s Law.
The family is advocating for national guidelines that consider parents’ intuition when they feel “something feels very wrong” with their child, following their own experiences of being disregarded. They also discussed the report into Yusuf’s care, which was published in July, and were assured by the Health Secretary that the recommendations would not be left idle.
Speaking to The Mirror following the meeting in London, Yusuf’s uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, 42, said: “Yusuf’s legend is already saving lives”. He expressed their satisfaction that the Government is taking their calls for action “very, very seriously”.
“It’s important that this is taken very seriously and these concerns are addressed nationally,” he said. He also shared how they had discussed the impact Yusuf’s story is having on preventing others from suffering the same fate.
“Maybe his life was shortened to save hundreds and hundreds of other children. We want to prevent any other child going through what Yusuf’s been through. Within the local hospitals we can see that people are using Yusuf’s name, to get the right care. His name is getting used quite a lot.
“Some of the trusts are also using Yusuf’s name in their training. His legend is saving people’s lives. Wes Streeting also made a comment on that and said ‘we are sure Yusuf has saved many many lives already’.”
Speaking about the family’s ongoing anguish, he revealed: “It’s absolutely broken our hearts, it’s destroyed our hearts. Thinking about what could have been done, what could have been easily preventable. If only we’d been listened to, if only it was acted on, if only we were taken seriously, then Yusuf would have been still with us.”
The family have described how they pleaded for medicine, were informed an ambulance was ‘not a taxi’ and witnessed other youngsters also unwell and waiting in corridors. Mr Ahmed continued: “There’s not a day goes by where we don’t speak about Yusuf, where we’re not sharing family photographs of Yusuf.
“Our other children, Yusuf’s cousins, Yusuf’s brothers, they’re all struggling daily, asking ‘when’s Yusuf coming back? He’s been gone for a while, when’s he back? He’s not answering our face time. He’s got two brothers, one is 13 years old and one just turned 18. It’s very, very difficult for them because they’re asking ‘why has Yusuf been taken? Why did Yusuf die? Why did it have to be him?’ It’s left us with a lifetime of trauma.”
A solicitor representing the family previously stated at a pre-inquest review hearing that the family believed there were “a number of significant systems failures” in Sheffield and Rotherham. The young lad’s family have consistently maintained they were informed “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.
The report into his care, published in July, 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. A reliance on clinical metrics over caregiver insight caused distress for the family.
“This led to a lack of shared decision-making and there was limited evidence of collaborative discussions with Yusuf’s family around clinical decisions, leading to a sense of exclusion and reduced trust in care plans.”
Yusuf, who suffered from asthma, was taken to a GP with a sore throat and feeling poorly on 15 November 2022. An advanced nurse practitioner prescribed him antibiotics.
Later that evening, his parents took him to Rotherham Hospital’s urgent and emergency care centre where he was seen in the early hours of the morning following a six-hour wait. He was discharged with a diagnosis of severe tonsillitis and an extended prescription of antibiotics.
Two days afterwards, Yusuf received additional antibiotics from his GP for a suspected chest infection, but his relatives grew so worried they summoned an ambulance and demanded the paramedics transport him to Sheffield Children’s Hospital instead of Rotherham.
Yusuf was placed in the intensive care unit on November 21 but developed multi-organ failure and endured multiple cardiac arrests which proved fatal.
A comprehensive inquest into his death is scheduled to commence on April 13 next year.
Mr Ahmed, who attended the meeting alongside Yusuf’s mother, Soniya Ahmed, and solicitor Anna Thwaites, stated: “We believe that the inquest will come out with a lot more truth about what happened to Yusuf. We wanted to make sure that parents’ voices are heard, it’s very important that parents get their voices heard.”
Yusuf’s mum addressed a press conference earlier this year. Soniya Ahmed spoke of being tormented by her son’s desperate plea, ‘mummy I can’t breathe’.
The mother described how her “happy little boy” had been let down “catastrophically”.
“For the medical staff there are lessons to be learnt from this tragedy, but for us, our life, Yusuf has been taken away from us in the most horrific way,” she said.
“My son went into hospital with tonsillitis and he never returned home. My son was left to die right beside me. He was crying in pain. Yet received no pain relief.
“…The report concludes that 13 missed opportunities to escalate Yusuf’s care. All while I was trusting the NHS to protect him. They failed him catastrophically. “.
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