Paramedic struck off after treating dying asthma girl, 7

Izabelle Easen died at her home in Thorne, South Yorkshire, in April 2009 after an asthma attack brought on a cardiac arrest.

Her family said they were never told the paramedic who worked on her, James McKenna, later faced a “fitness to practise” hearing after he failed to perform advanced life-saving techniques.

The paramedic was struck off in 2010 after the Health Professions Council (HPC) heard about Izabelle’s case and other, separate incidents - including one in which he “behaved without compassion, feeling or tact towards the patient and his family”.

Lorna Easen, Izabelle’s mother, said: “It’s morally wrong, if nothing else. Absolutely terrible. They should have informed me. They should have informed the police as far as I’m concerned. It’s my child, not theirs. To them she’s just a piece of paperwork.”

Papers from the HPC about Mr McKenna’s case do not mention Izabelle’s name. They show how Mr McKenna did not perform advanced life support and that he pronounced the patient dead after only performing basic life support.

A technician on a second ambulance wanted to take the little girl to hospital, which he said would have “given the family some support” but was overruled by Mr McKenna. Experts have said, though, that the chances were that Izabelle was unlikely to have survived even if these actions had been taken.

Mr McKenna was only brought before the HPC after an audit of the documentation.

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “It has not been, and is not, our intention to keep information from the family concerned and we would like to reassure them and members of the public that we are committed to being open with patients and their relatives.

An HPC spokeswoman said the council “operates transparent and open fitness to practise processes” and stressed its hearings are held in public and are well advertised in advance.