Russells Hall Hospital staff did best to save boy, 8, after fatal asthma attack, coroner rules
Sporty eight-year-old Owen Jeremy died from natural causes – despite "proper, careful and appropriate" treatment from hospital staff – after an asthma attack, a coroner has ruled.
The emotional inquest – during which Owen's mother sobbed and clutched his favourite "Scooby Doo" toy – heard that the youngster panicked and tore off his mask after staff at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital gave him an adrenaline nebuliser in an attempt to boost his intake of air.
Owen, of Primrose Hill, Wordsley, went into respiratory arrest and died just after midnight on May 24, having been admitted to hospital the previous afternoon after suffering an asthma attack at school.
Earlier he had been playing football at Fairhaven Primary School, Wordsley, and the day before that he got his 50m swimming badge.
Owen's mother, Rowena, whose job with the Met Office includes looking at the effect of weather conditions on health, said that, when they first arrived at hospital, Owen was "playful and chatty", watching DVDs and looking forward to his holidays.
But it had been "unbearably hot" in the children's ward, where there was only one fan between two beds, and her son developed a dry cough and was very red.
"When it was hot or humid he would always get very wheezy and at home we had a fan heater air cooler to keep the house at a normal temperature," she said.
Mrs Jeremy, now of Clock Tower View, Wordsley, said that Owen's condition changed at about 10pm. "He was very scared – he was scared about being in hospital, scared he was going to die, scared to have a needle put in him."
Miss Anna Diamond, representing the family, questioned staff closely during the five-hour inquest in Smethwick about Owen's treatment, including the heat on the ward and the decision to give him an adrenaline nebuliser after he panicked and refused to let a doctor insert an intravenous line for medication.
But Black Country Coroner Mr Robin Balmain, recording that Owen's death from acute asthma was natural causes, said: "It seems to me he has had extremely careful and competent treatment.
"It's always possible to pick holes in what went on, but, having said that, I am entirely satisfied that Owen's treatment was proper, careful and appropriate."
