Daniel Klosi: Incomplete checks made before boy’s sepsis death

Hospital staff made incomplete checks on a four-year-old boy in the days before he died from sepsis, an inquest has heard.

Daniel Klosi died on April 2 last year after being taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London four times in a week by his parents.

During the second and third visits, Kastriot Klosi and Lindita Alushi say doctors advised them to give their son Calpol and Ibuprofen. On the fourth visit, Daniel, who had autism, was admitted and died hours later from sepsis.

The Mail’s End The Sepsis Scandal campaign is trying to raise awareness of symptoms among patients and staff.

Daniel’s mother first noticed he was ‘wheezing and had a barking cough’ on March 26 and took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with crepitation of the lungs.

After he was discharged, the family returned on March 30. A doctor and nurse said Daniel had picked up a virus and he should ‘go home and rest.’

But after he ‘stopped eating and drinking’, his parents went back to the hospital on April 1.

Mr Klosi told Poplar Coroner’s Court: ‘I felt as if the doctor was fixated on telling me Daniel had a virus rather than finding out what the real problem was.’

Daniel was discharged, but the family returned. Their son started ‘deteriorating’ in front of them, with his nose, hands and feet ‘turning purple’, the hearing was told.

Dr Shrabhi Agarwal saw Daniel at 3.30am on March 31, taking some observations an hour later, but did not discharge him until 8am. Asked by Coroner Mary Hassell if that was too long a gap and if another set of observations should have been taken, Dr Agarwal replied: ‘Yes.’

Nurse Lucy Parker, on duty on April 1, said she could not perform a full set of observations of Daniel ‘due to his distress’. This meant Daniel’s heart rate and blood pressure were not taken or logged. Dr Kavita Sumaria, who saw the youngster on April 1, said she did not realise it was Daniel’s third visit and did not read triage medical notes logged for him. ‘I thought I had a clear picture of what was going on – in retrospect, that obviously was not the case,’ she said.

The inquest continues.