‘They said they had no space’: Family says boy, 5, died after he was sent home from hospital
The grieving family of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from hospital have told Sky News he would still be alive if they had been listened to.
Zaheer Ahmed said he “begged and begged” for his nephew Yusuf Mahmud Nazir to be admitted to hospital but was told “there are no beds and not enough doctors”.
Yusuf first complained of a sore throat on 13 November. His parents took him to their GP, who prescribed antibiotics.
Zaheer Ahmed: ‘We’ve lost a beautiful child’
The next day, when their son’s health did not improve, they drove him to the emergency department of Rotherham General Hospital.
Mr Ahmed told Sky News that they waited all night to be seen by a doctor and after Yusuf was examined he was sent home, even though the doctor treating his nephew said “it was the worst case of tonsillitis he had ever seen”.
His nephew was struggling to breathe, could not swallow and was clearly in a distressed state, he said.
At home, after Yusuf’s condition deteriorated further, his worried parents called an ambulance and insisted he was taken to see the specialist paediatric team at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
But it was too late to save the young boy’s life.
The infection had spread to his lungs and caused multiple organ failure resulting in several cardiac arrests.
Yusuf died of pneumonia on Monday.
‘We begged and begged for help’
Mr Ahmed said: “He stopped breathing, he stopped talking, when he was choking, he couldn’t breathe. He was struggling. And it’s led to his life being taken at five years old.
“If they would have treated him where we wanted him to be treated he would be here with us now.
“He would have been here playing like he was. We’ve lost a beautiful child… it’s not his fault. We begged and begged and begged for help. We couldn’t get it. We just did not get the help we wanted, or we needed or we should have got.
“They kept saying to us, they kept saying to us, ‘We’ve got one doctor. What do you want us to do? We’ve got no beds available. What do you want us to do? We’ve got no space for him. What do you want us to do? Complain to the big people, don’t complain to us. Complain to the big ones that only gave us one doctor’.”
Mr Ahmed said he wanted some good to come from his nephew’s life.
He said: “Even if it saves one child’s life, saves one parent going through what we’re going through, it saves one family to suffer what we’ve suffered. That will be enough for me.
“If Yusuf, who’s passed away, if he can save one child, we’re happy. We do not want anybody to go through this. And we’re just asking them to please listen to people. Because when you don’t listen to people, this is what happens.”
Dr Richard Jenkins, chief executive of the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, has offered his condolences to Yusuf’s family and told Sky News: “We have commenced a thorough investigation into Yusuf’s care, which will include liaison with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
“We have contacted the family and will continue to do so as part of the investigation.”
No children’s intensive care beds south of Stoke
Children’s doctors call November “paediatric winter”. The season starts with a spike in winter respiratory viruses and as these cases subside, flu cases rise.
Senior paediatric consultants have told Sky News about their concerns of unsustainable pressure on emergency children’s services.
One doctor said child patients were being transferred to his London hospital from Wales because there were no PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) beds available anywhere in England south of Stoke.
In response, an NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS has seen a sharp rise in the number of children requiring invasive ventilation with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in recent weeks and as a result, pressure on paediatric intensive care units has been higher than usual.
“The NHS has tried and tested surge plans in place which includes mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure services are able to provide the highest quality care to all children and we have reminded local areas about this guidance.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “All children deserve the highest levels of care and we are taking urgent action to ensure no families have to experience these kinds of tragedies.
“Last week we announced up to £8bn for health and social care in 2024/25 and we’re giving an extra £500m to speed up hospital discharge and free up beds, ensuring people are only in hospital for as long as they need to be.
“The NHS is also creating the equivalent of 7,000 more beds this winter – enabling hospitals to treat patients sooner, including by using remote monitoring to provide care at home or in the community.”
UK
Andrew Malkinson criticises apology from Criminal Cases Review Commission after he was wrongly jailed for 17 years
A man wrongly jailed for 17 years for a rape he did not commit has said it is “too little too late” after receiving an apology from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Andrew Malkinson was jailed in 2003 but eventually released in December 2020.
His charges were quashed last year after new DNA evidence potentially linked another man to the crime.
The CCRC has now offered Mr Malkinson an unreserved apology after the completion of a report from an independent review by Chris Henley KC into the handling of the case.
But reacting to the apology, Mr Malkinson said the time for CCRC chairman Helen Pitcher OBE to apologise was when he was exonerated last summer.
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Malkinson: Wrongly imprisoned for rape
“The CCRC’s delay in apologising to me added significantly to the mental turmoil I am experiencing as I continue to fight for accountability for what was done to me,” Mr Malkinson said.
“The CCRC’s failings caused me a world of pain. Even the police apologised straight away. It feels like Helen Pitcher is only apologising now because the CCRC has been found out, and the last escape hatch has now closed on them.”
He said his lawyer had written to Ms Pitcher last September requesting an apology, to which she refused.
He added: “It is hard for me to see the sincerity in an apology after all this time – when you are truly sorry for what you have done, you respond immediately and instinctively, it wells up in you.”
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Pitcher released a statement saying: “Mr Henley’s report makes sobering reading, and it is clear from his findings that the commission failed Andrew Malkinson. For this, I am deeply sorry. I have written to Mr Malkinson to offer him my sincere regret and an unreserved apology on behalf of the commission.
Addressing beliefs that she was unwilling to apologise, Ms Pitcher added: “For me, offering a genuine apology required a clear understanding of the circumstances in which the commission failed Mr Malkinson. We now have that.
Mr Malkinson protested his innocence for years. Pic: PA
“Nobody can ever begin to imagine the devastating impact that Mr Malkinson’s wrongful conviction has had on his life, and I can only apologise for the additional harm caused to him by our handling of his case.”
Mr Malkinson had applied for his case to be reviewed by the CCRC in 2009, but at the conclusion of its review in 2012 the commission refused to order further forensic testing or refer the case for appeal, amid concerns over costs.
A second application was rejected in 2020.
Read more:
Investigation launched into Andrew Malkinson case
Police and CPS ‘knew another man’s DNA was on victim’s clothes’
Critical DNA evidence had been available since 2007, but no match was found on the police database at the time.
Since Mr Malkinson had his conviction quashed, dozens of rape and murder convictions from before 2016 are set to undergo fresh DNA testing to identify potential miscarriages of justice.
The CCRC said it has re-examined nearly 5,500 cases that it previously rejected in the light of improvement in DNA analysis techniques.
Its initial trawl last summer found around a quarter of the cases are those where the identity of the offender is challenged.
Focusing on those, it says there are potentially several dozen cases where DNA samples could be retested using the DNA 17 technique, first introduced in 2014.
UK
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell charged in connection with embezzlement of funds from SNP
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has been charged by police after he was arrested amid an investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances.
Police said he has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party.
The former SNP chief executive, 59, was questioned by detectives after being taken into Police Scotland custody on Thursday at 9.13am.
He remained in police custody until he was charged just after 6.30pm.
Murrell has since been released from custody.
A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in due course.
Murrell is the former chief executive of the SNP. Pic: PA
The police investigation into the party’s funding and finances has been ongoing for years.
It has been dubbed Operation Branchform.
Murrell became chief executive of the SNP in 2001, he stepped down from the role in 2023 having held it for more than 20 years.
He has been married to Ms Sturgeon – who resigned as first minister last February – since 2010.
Dozens of people around the world have been arrested after police disrupted a UK-founded website scamming victims on an industrial scale.
LabHost, a site set up in 2021, tricked as many as 70,000 UK victims, obtaining 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs worldwide, the Metropolitan Police said.
It was created by a criminal network and enabled more than 2,000 users to set up phishing websites designed to steal personal information such as email addresses, passwords and bank details.
Criminal subscribers could log on and choose from existing sites or request bespoke pages replicating those of trusted brands such as banks, healthcare agencies and postal services.
Person arrested in connection with the investigation. Pic: Met Police
The website even provided a tutorial to cater for wannabe fraudsters with limited IT knowledge, with a robotic voice saying at the end: “Stay safe and good spamming”.
Those subscribing to worldwide membership – meaning they could target victims all around the world – paid between £200 and £300 a month.
Since it began, the site has received just under £1m in payments from criminal users.
But just after it was seized and disrupted, its 800 customers got a message telling them that police knew who they were and what they were doing.
Thirty-seven people were arrested around the world, including some at Manchester and Luton airports, as well as in Essex and London.
Detectives have also contacted up to 25,000 UK-based victims to tell them their data has been compromised.
Read more:
Notorious cyber crime gang Lockbit disrupted by NCA, FBI and international coalition
FBI disrupts hacking network ‘linked to Russian intelligence’
Parents of US gun violence victims use AI to recreate their voices
Chinese hackers preparing to ‘wreak havoc’ on US, warns FBI chief
Items seized by the Metropolitan Police. Pic: Met Police
Police began investigating LabHost in June 2022 after they were tipped off by the Cyber Defence Alliance – a group of British-based banks and law enforcement agencies which share intelligence.
Dame Lynne Owens, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said: “Online fraudsters think they can act with impunity. They believe they can hide behind digital identities and platforms such as LabHost and have absolute confidence these sites are impenetrable by policing.
“But this operation and others over the last year show how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together with one another and private sector partners to dismantle international fraud networks at source.”
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “This operation again demonstrates that UK law enforcement has the capability and intent to identify, disrupt and completely compromise criminal services that are targeting the UK on an industrial scale.”
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