Do Not Inject Me ! Say No To Vaccines

Neglect contributed to the death of an eight-year-old schoolboy at the height of last year's swine flu outbreak, after 999 and NHS staff mistook his diabetes for the H1N1 virus, a coroner ruled today.

Louis Austin began experiencing bad headaches and chronic fatigue last July. When he became so ill that he could no longer stand or speak, his mother, Melanie, dialled 999.

But the staff who handled her call refused to send an ambulance and classed the case as a non-emergency, the inquest into the boy's death at Stockport magistrates court heard.

Instead, because it was a Saturday, she was passed to Mastercall, the out-of-hours care provider covering the family's home in Old Trafford, Manchester.

Dr Tracey Leigh, the out-of-hours GP who was on call, diagnosed the boy with swine flu after following a flowchart to help identify his symptoms.

She then prescribed him Tamiflu, the main drug that the NHS used to treat cases of H1N1.

However, Louis was actually suffering from a rare form of diabetes which had not been diagnosed, and was experiencing symptoms of kidney failure related to that disease. When his mother found him in bed the next day he was cold and had stopped breathing.

He was pronounced dead at Royal Manchester children's hospital.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley, who recorded a verdict of death by natural causes contributed to by neglect, criticised the North West ambulance service, which had taken the first call. "This call should never have been sent to an out-of-hours service.

"It is abundantly clear they failed to ascertain answers to crucial questions. The call should have led to urgent medical intervention."

A medical specialist told the inquest there was a 95% chance that the boy would have survived if an ambulance had been sent and if he had then received the correct treatment.

His mother is considering legal action against the medical staff involved in her son's care.

"I would have been happier with a different verdict for the doctor – she should have got it right," she said outside court. "It has been horrible, they have not taken this seriously. They need retraining and need to look at things a lot more carefully when people ring up.

"I wish I had taken him to a walk-in centre rather than bothering to ring them, because I was going to but they stopped me," she said. "I would not put my faith in the medical profession again."

Louis attended cub scouts and the Boys' Brigade, liked playing judo and was "bright, bubbly and energetic" in the days before he fell ill, she added.

Several children and young people are known to have been harmed or even to have died during last year's swine flu outbreak after their tonsillitis, pneumonia or meningitis was wrongly diagnosed as H1N1.