The mother of a five-year-old boy who lost his life after being sent home from hospital said he was "left to die" after a report found medics ignored her "instinct" that her son was unwell.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died on 23 November 2022, eight days after he was sent home from Rotherham Hospital with antibiotics for tonsillitis.
A new report published on Thursday by NHS England was critical of the care Yusuf received.
It said: “Our primary finding is that the parental concerns, particularly the mother’s instinct that her child was unwell, were repeatedly not addressed across services."
Speaking at a press conference after the report was published Yusuf’s mother, Soniya Ahmed, said: "The failings we faced during this critical time led to the unimaginable and traumatic loss of our child.
"They say a mother’s instinct is a powerful thing. It can neither be ignored nor explained, yet my concerns were ignored each and every time.
"My son was left to die beside me."
Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to the GP with a sore throat and feeling unwell on 15 November 2022. He was prescribed antibiotics by an advanced nurse practitioner.
Later that evening, his parents took him to Rotherham Hospital’s urgent and emergency care centre (UECC) where he was seen in the early hours of the morning after a six-hour wait.
Yusuf 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 the paramedics take him 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 which he did not survive.
Thursday’s report comes after a report on Yusuf’s case in October 2023, by independent consultants and published by NHS South Yorkshire, found his care was appropriate and “an admission was not clinically required”.
The 2023 report said there was only one doctor in the paediatric UECC on November 15 and, after midnight, that medic was responsible for covering adults and children.
It added that the doctor who saw Yusuf is an experienced UECC doctor who would not have needed to refer to a paediatrician to admit him.
But his family claimed the report was a "whitewash" and called for further investigations.
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