Covid: Breathing tube contributed to boy's death - coroner

Four people wearing protective clothing lowered Ismail's coffin into a grave at the Eternal Gardens Muslim Burial Ground

A misplaced breathing tube contributed to the death of the UK's first known child victim of coronavirus, a coroner has found.

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, from Brixton, died of acute respiratory distress syndrome on 30 March 2020.

He went into cardiac arrest after testing positive for Covid-19 at King's College Hospital in London.

Senior Coroner Andrew Harris said he would not have died when he did "were it not for the tube misplacement".

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab died at King's College Hospital on 30 March 2020

The boy was suffering with a fever, coughing, shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhoea before he was admitted to hospital on 26 March, the inquest heard.

He was put on a ventilator and then placed in an induced coma, having tested positive for Covid-19 the following day.

Hours before Ismail's death, an endotracheal tube (ET) used to help patients breathe was found to be in the wrong position, the court heard.

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But a decision was made by a consultant in paediatric intensive care to leave it and monitor him, Southwark Coroner's Court was told.

Ismail's family were not able to be with him when he died in hospital and were unable to attend his funeral as they were self-isolating after some of his siblings contracted symptoms of Covid-19.

A statement made by Ismail's eldest sister, read out in court on Wednesday, described the teenager as a "kind and genuine soul".

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