Boy, 12, had heart condition

Published 4 Jul 2009 16:00

A 12-year-old boy with an 'extremely rare' medical condition died of a heart attack, an inquest heard.

But although Daniel Farr"s parents felt more could have been done to prevent his death, experts told the coroner that a faster response by doctors may not have saved him.

Daniel, from the Meadway, Tilehurst, died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) on January 4 but it was only after his post mortem that it was discovered he suffered from the heart muscle disease, cardiomyopathy.

The day before his death Daniel"s mum Rosemary twice called the NHS out-of-hours GP service WestCall because he was vomiting and had chest pains. She was at first told to give him paracetamol and later told to bring him to the WestCall clinic at the RBH.

Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said: 'Daniel"s mother spoke to two different doctors at WestCall on the phone and the second time was incorrectly told that doctors did not do home visits.'

WestCall medical director, Dr Jeremy Laed, told the inquest the second doctor, Edouard Anis, had made a 'mistake' by saying doctors would not come out.

He added that vomiting and chest pains are very common in children and that WestCall had been extremely busy at the time dealing with cases of flu, gastroenteritis and norovirus.

Mr Bedford considered a report by Dr Nick Archer, a paediatric cardiologist from Oxford"s John Radcliffe hospital, which said that even if Daniel had been admitted to hospital, his 'extremely rare' heart condition may have gone undiagnosed.

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