The senior coroner who presided over Martha Mills’s inquest1 has alerted the health and social care secretary for England, Steve Barclay, to another case where a child died a preventable death after doctors ignored a mother’s warnings that the child was deteriorating.2
Mary Hassell, senior coroner for inner north London, told Barclay in a report on prevention of future deaths that she believed he needed to know the circumstances of Riya Hirani’s death before deciding on introducing Martha’s rule, the right for parents to seek an urgent second opinion.
Hassell is also sending a report to the medical director of Northwick Park Hospital, where Riya’s mother took …
A coroner has urged the government to swiftly bring in “Martha’s Rule” after a nine-year-old girl sent home from hospital with suspected tonsilitis died from the bacterial infection Strep A
Riya Hirani, of Wetheral Drive in Stanmore, was discharged from Northwick Park Hospital, in Harrow, on December 22, 2022 with a piece of paper and advice to use over-the-counter painkillers
Riya Hirani was discharged from Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow with a piece of paper advising her to use over-the-counter painkillers, despite pleas from her parents.