Boy, 8, dead from Strep A after being sent home twice from hospital

An eight-year-old boy was sent home from the hospital twice and left “suffocating” on a floor before he died after catching Strep A.

Sajida Jabeen, 39, claimed doctors gave her son Mohammad Izaan Danish doses of ibuprofen and a nebulizer before realizing the severity of his condition two days later.

The mother-of-three said she had waited for six hours on two separate occasions at Bradford Royal Infirmary while pleading with doctors to take his symptoms seriously.

On their second visit, she said Mohammad was forced to sit on the hospital floor while suffering severe chest pains as there were no chairs left.

Ms Jabeen said the extent of Mohammad’s illness was only noted at a GP appointment, leading her to rush him back to the hospital for treatment.

Just over three weeks later, after catching Strep A and pneumonia, he died.

Ms Jabeen said she was “angry” that doctors had not cared for him sooner after the hospital trust confirmed it would launch a “thorough investigation” into his death.

She said: “I’m angry. He was on the floor, suffocating with chest pain and a temperature. He couldn’t even lie down. There was no place for him.

“They could have taken more care of him and taken him into a ward or something.

“There was a four to six-hour wait, and then they gave him ibuprofen, which they shouldn’t have.”

She added: “He was just really friendly and happy, always smiling.”

Ms Jabeen, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said Mohammad had begun to feel unwell around 9 December last year, suffering from a cough and a temperature.

She decided to take him to Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) on the evening of 10 December, as she worried about his worsening symptoms.

After waiting for around six hours for assistance, she claims the doctor gave Mohammad medicine and told the pair he was fine to go home.

Ms Jabeen said they got the same treatment when she took Mohammad back to the hospital the following evening, on 11 December, while her son suffered chest pains.

She said: “I took him to the hospital, the BRI. There was a wait and they saw him and gave him ibuprofen.

“And then after another wait, they gave him a nebulizer. Then they said, ‘He’s ok, he can go home.’ “The second day was worse, and there was another wait, and he ended up on the floor. There were no chairs or anything to sit on,” she said.

“He couldn’t even lie down because his chest was hurting really badly. He just wanted to sit up.

“They gave him ibuprofen. He had a temperature. I was waiting for another four to six hours.”

Ms Jabeen said she had a GP appointment booked the next morning for Mohammad, and medics had later given her permission to take him back home.

But when she visited her local surgery, she said her doctor was shocked at the health of the little boy and told her to go back to the hospital immediately.

She said: “The doctor was really, really shocked. He was really poorly.

“He said: “Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?’ I said, ‘I have been taking him but they’re not really doing that much.”

“I quickly took him to the hospital. He had given me a note, and I gave it to them. They started checking on him, and that was it.”

Mohammad was admitted to the BRI on 12 December, before being transferred to Leeds General Infirmary the following day, where he died on 6 January.

Describing her son, Ms Jabeen said: “He really liked playing football. He was a fan of Manchester United. He wanted to do lots of things. He was a happy kid.

“He was in year four, and he loved learning. He liked his teachers and his friends.”

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s chief medical officer, Dr Ray Smith: “I would like to send our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Izaan’s parents on the tragic death of their son.

“I will conduct a thorough investigation and the findings will be shared with Izaan’s parents once completed.”