Sickle cell: Patient would not have died after 999 call in hospital if symptoms recognised sooner, coroner says

A 21-year-old man with sickle cell disease who rang 999 from his hospital bed after staff failed to recognise the severity of his symptoms, died because he wasn’t given a blood transfusion in time.

That’s the view of a coroner at the inquest into the death of Evan Smith, which also heard that he was refused oxygen when he asked for it.