![\"Zara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Zara-2.jpg\")
Zara Cheesman, 15, died after she was not being taken to hospital when she should have been, an inquest has heard(Image: Family handout \/ PA Wire)<\/p>\nZara Cheesman showed “red flags” of meningitis such as confusion and a severe headacheZara Cheesman, 15, died after she was not being taken to hospital when she should have been, an inquest has heard(Image: Family handout \/ PA Wire)<\/p>\n
A 15-year-old girl who died from meningitis was “failed” by the ambulance service after not being taken to hospital when she should have been, an inquest has been told.<\/a> Zara Cheesman, from the Mapperley Park area of Nottingham, died on December 23 last year.<\/p>\n Nottingham Coroner’s Court<\/a> heard that paramedics from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) failed to take her to hospital during a callout shortly before her death. The inquest also heard that Zara had visited A&E three days earlier<\/a>, on December 20, after experiencing vomiting and pain in her neck and shoulder.<\/p>\n She was discharged with a suspected case of norovirus. The following day, two ambulance technicians, who are non-registered clinicians unlike paramedics, went to Zara\u2019s home where she showed “red flags” of meningitis such as confusion and a severe headache.<\/p>\n The inquest was told that it was policy for technicians to seek guidance from a senior clinical lead if they decide not to take someone under 18 years old to hospital, but this was not done in Zara\u2019s case.<\/p>\n The inquest previously heard Zara likely would have survived if she had been taken back to hospital.<\/p>\n Susan Jevons, head of patient safety for EMAS, apologised to Zara\u2019s family and promised to make changes to ensure that the same thing does not happen again.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cWe failed Zara in life, we are not going to do that in death.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Jevons said it was the responsibility of each staff member to make sure they had read and understood policies, which come up as bulletins which clinicians need to confirm they have read.<\/p>\n The inquest heard that the technicians who attended Zara\u2019s home said they had not seen the policy about seeking guidance for under-18s, but Ms Jevons said Michael Hoy, who was a qualified technician whereas the other was a trainee, had pressed a button to confirm he had read it.<\/p>\n Giving evidence on Friday, Ms Jevons said: \u201cYou are a clinician, you have a responsibility to us as an organisation and your patients that you are reading and understanding those policies and procedures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot sit and take every clinician off the road to go line by line with every policy.\u201d<\/p>\n She told coroner Elizabeth Didcock: \u201cBecause Zara had already had a presentation at the Queen\u2019s Medical Centre the day before, there would have been no question \u2013 she should have been conveyed back to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Jevons said the policy for technicians to speak to a registered clinician before discharging a child had been in place for \u201cmany, many years\u201d.<\/p>\n The coroner said: \u201cHow do I know those two (technicians) are unusual, they are outliers?<\/p>\n \u201cThose things are not familiar to (Mr Hoy), yet every day he is making conveyance decisions or leaving patients there.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to be confident across those that go out, there is an understanding of what is different about under-18s\u2026those aspects are key to this awful situation for Zara.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s key for young patients today, tomorrow \u2013 that\u2019s the concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Jevons said there have been no similar incidents since Zara died and that all children who have needed to go to hospital have been taken by ambulance crews.<\/p>\n She addressed Zara\u2019s relatives at the end of her evidence and said: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry we let you down. We will make sure we do make major changes to assist other patients.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t do anything for Zara, I\u2019m truly sorry we can\u2019t. I will make sure it does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest\u2019s evidence finished on Friday and the coroner is expected to deliver her conclusion on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zara Cheesman showed “red flags” of meningitis such as confusion and a severe headacheZara Cheesman, 15, died after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1343,59,102,104,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-134366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-courts","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Zara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Zara.jpg\")
Zara Cheesman, 15, died after she was not being taken to hospital when she should have been, an inquest has heard(Image: Family handout\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n