Inquest opens into death of five-year-old Yusuf Nazir

An inquest has opened into the death of a five-year-old boy who was sent home from A&E.

Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died at Sheffield Children’s Hospital on 23 November 2022, eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital and sent home with antibiotics.

After NHS England published a second report into his death last month, his family called for an inquest, saying it was the “only way” to get answers about what happened.

Following the inquest opening at Sheffield Medico-Legal Centre, Yusuf’s uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, said: “It’s been a tough fight to get here, but we are getting closer to the truth. We just want to know how our little baby has died, and who is responsible.”

The inquest opened on Thursday – two days after what would have been the boy’s eight birthday.

Mr Ahmed said Yusuf, who lived with his parents in Rotherham, was a “jolly little boy, a very happy little child” who was “full of life and energy”.

“He would have been eight years old [this week], but unfortunately these failings have taken him very early.

Sheffield’s senior coroner, Tanyka Rawden, offered condolences to the family and adjourned the inquest to a case management hearing on 30 January next year.

The full inquest will be later than this, which Mr Ahmed said he did not mind “as long as everything gets looked at properly”.

“We don’t want it to be rushed. We don’t want any opportunities to be missed.”

Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to a GP with a sore throat and feeling unwell on 15 November and was prescribed antibiotics by an advanced nurse practitioner.

Later that evening, his parents took him to Rotherham Hospital urgent and emergency care centre, where he was seen after a six-hour wait.

Mr Ahmed has always said they were told “there are no beds and not enough doctors” in the emergency department, and that Yusuf should have been admitted and given intravenous antibiotics in Rotherham.

He was discharged with a diagnosis of severe tonsillitis and an extended prescription of antibiotics.

Two days later, Yusuf was given further antibiotics by his GP for a possible chest infection, but his family became so concerned they called an ambulance and insisted he was taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital rather than Rotherham.

Yusuf was admitted to the intensive care unit on 21 November but developed multi-organ failure and suffered several cardiac arrests.

Soniya Ahmed, Yusuf’s mother, said at a press conference in July that her son had been taken from the family in “the most horrific way”.

“Every night when I close my eyes I hear Yusuf’s helpless voice in my ears saying, ‘Mummy, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I really can’t’,” she said.

The primary finding of the NHS report, published in July, said “parental concerns, particularly the mother’s instinct that her child was unwell, were repeatedly not addressed across services”.

A pre-inquest review will be held before the hearing on 30 January, with the date yet to be fixed.