Yusuf ‘would be alive if hospital had found a bed’
THE family of a five-year-old boy who died a week after he was sent home from hospital have met Health Secretary Victoria Atkins as they call for a fresh investigation.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital’s emergency department and sent home with antibiotics.
A report into Yusuf’s case published last year found that his NHS care was appropriate and “an admission was not clinically required” – but this has been rejected by his family.
Yusuf’s uncle Zaheer Ahmed claims they were told there were no beds and not enough doctors and that his nephew, who died on November 23, 2022, should have stayed at Rotherham.
Ahead of yesterday’s meeting he said: “He should have been admitted on that day, he should have been given IV antibiotics on that day, and he wouldn’t have died.”
Mr Ahmed claims last year’s report missed out evidence and had pages redacted from a version he was first given. The report set out how Yusuf was discharged from the emergency care centre with severe tonsillitis and a prescription of antibiotics after first being taken to see a GP.
Two days later, Yusuf got worse and he was admitted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital on November 21. But he had multiple organ failure and suffered several cardiac arrests, which he did not survive. Dr Jo Beahan, medical director at Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The independent investigation found that, sadly, there was nothing that could have been done differently that would have saved Yusuf’s life.”