My battle to prove the filthy air we breathe killed lovely Ella, 9
ELLA Roberta Kissi-Debrah should have been celebrating her 15th birthday today – but instead her family will be visiting her grave.
The youngster died aged just nine on February 15, 2013, after a severe asthma attack believed to have been caused by illegal levels of air pollution.
This popular, sporty and clever girl lived with her mother Rosamund and younger twin brother and sister yards from London’s busy South Circular Road, in Hither Green.
Ella was diagnosed with asthma in 2011 just before she turned seven.
Unlawful
Unusually, she also suffered from cough syncope, where consciousness is lost after prolonged bouts of coughing.
It is normally associated with long-distance lorry drivers and former smokers.
It was only years after Ella’s death that a link was spotted between spikes in air pollution and her 27 hospital visits for seizures caused by coughing which cut off her oxygen.
In a south London cafe she used to visit with Ella, Rosamund told of her battle to prove it was filthy air that killed her daughter.
“Air pollution is a public health crisis. My goal is for everybody to know about it
because everybody has the right to breathe clean air. It is a basic human right,” says the ex-secondary school teacher.
Earlier this month Rosamund was finally granted permission to apply for a new inquest by the Attorney General after fresh evidence was presented.
A new report by Prof Stephen Holgate, a University of Southampton expert on asthma and air pollution, said there was a “striking association” between her hospital admissions and increases in nitrogen dioxide and PM10 levels, the most noxious pollutants, near her home.
He said there was a “real prospect that without unlawful levels of air pollution, Ella would not have died”. The 2014
inquest concluded her death was caused by acute respiratory failure and severe asthma.
If the High Court gives the go-ahead for the second inquest, Jocelyn Cockburn, the human rights lawyer representing Rosamund, will be seeking a new verdict of “severe asthma secondary to air pollution exposure”, making it the first time pollution has been recorded on a death certificate in the UK.
It would be ground-breaking for Rosamund’s campaign for cleaner air but it will never bring her little girl back.
“I have waited a long time for this but there is no winning,” says Rosamund, welling up.
“I’ve already lost. I’m never going to win. The most I want
is for that to go on her death certificate.”
Ella dreamt of being a pilot and loved football. Millwall wanted her to play in their youth team – between attacks it was hard to tell she was ill.
So far the single mum from Lewisham has raised £15,000 of £25,000 needed for legal fees.
Ms Cockburn believes a new inquest will force the Government to account for “inaction” on air pollution in this period.
And for Rosamund it will help her move forward.
She said: “I hope that by her 16th birthday it is all sorted so we can put it to rest. So she can rest. And I can live.”
To help, go to crowdjustice. com/case/airpollution