Overview

• Nottingham Coroner's Court heard that Zara Cheesman, 15, died on December 23 after becoming ill days earlier with symptoms later described as red flags for meningitis.
• At Queen’s Medical Centre, a trainee nurse practitioner raised meningitis as a possibility, but paediatric registrar Dr Derek Huffadine discharged Zara without blood tests or antibiotics after judging a stomach bug more likely.
• The next day, East Midlands Ambulance Service technicians assessed Zara at home and, according to her parents’ statement, advised her to “sleep it off” and said meningitis was not possible.
• Paramedics returned the following morning when Zara became limp and went into respiratory failure, and she died at QMC that afternoon.
• Her parents told the inquest they were later informed she likely would have survived with hospital admission the previous day and almost certainly with timely antibiotics; the three-day hearing continues.