Pupil died after ‘clinical red flags’ not passed on in 999 call
CRUCIAL information about a 10-year-old boy who suffered a head injury while playing football was not passed on to clinical 999 assessors, an inquest was told.
Yasir Hussain, of Ward End, injured himself while playing at Leigh Primary School, in Washwood Heath, and died in hospital five days later on November 17, last year. School first aiders wanted him to be assessed by paramedics and called 999, but the pressure on West Midlands Ambulance Service from the Covid pandemic triggered a 90-minute response delay.
Yasir’s mother Nazia Parveen then decided she would take her son home from school after his condition “improved” when he began communicating more. The ambulance was cancelled by a teacher during a second 999 call – but Ms Parveen said she would have made a different decision had she had a fuller picture of his condition.
Conclusions of an internal ambulance service investigation found the first 999 call contained “clinical red flags” and information, including Yasir’s “drowsiness”, was not passed during the second call.
Sophie Whittaker, for the ambulance service, who took the second 999 call, said: “At the time of the call, as I’m not a clinician, sometimes it’s hard to know what’s relevant and what’s not relevant on the right information to pass on.” She added: “When you get that 999 call you deal with it effectively and spend as much time as you need to to deal with the problem you are faced with.
“I don’t feel like I rushed it. I wasn’t aware it was a key clinical information to pass. I gave a description of why they were calling back and Yasir’s condition, at the time, it had improved. He still had pain in his head and had paracetamol.”
Asked by Coroner Louise Hunt if she had reflected on what happened and had changed her practice, Ms Whittaker said: “If in future I do need to speak to a paramedic I just make sure I verbally say all the notes that are written down. Just in case anything is missed for any reason over the phone or on the screen.”
She had also apologised for the delay due to an “extremely busy” day with a surge in calls on November 12, last year. A category three call involving falls would have a response time of 120 minutes.
Paramedic and clinical support worker Emma Musticone, who was consulted about the ambulance cancellation during the second 999 call, said she had 130 calls waiting for a response.
“If the hospitals are struggling and we can’t offload at the emergency department that means the ambulances can’t be released to go to the next treble nine call and with the pandemic and the sheer number of calls we’ve had that are also Covidrelated it’s just a knock on effect unfortunately,” she said.