Mother's heartbreak as her baby dies from pneumonia after private GP receptionist tells her she has to 'wait in line'

A mother has told of her devastation after her baby died after being sent home by doctors several times.
Axel Peanberg King died from pneumonia when he was just seven weeks old, having originally been diagnosed with a viral infection.
Today at his inquest his mother Linda broke down in tears as she described the agonising wait in A&E while he went into cardiac arrest.
Mrs Peanberg King, from Islington, north London, recalled how she and her husband Alistair had visited a a privately-run out-of-hours GP centre several times before their son's death.

Axel Peanburg King died from pneumonia despite his mother calling and visiting a privately-run out of hours GP centre several times

She told St Pancras Coroner’s Court that they were first in contact with the Harmoni centre in the Whittington Hospital in north London on the night of October 30 last year.
The next morning she took Axel to her own GP, who suspected he probably had a viral infection.
But when his condition did not improve by the following evening, Mr and Mrs Peanberg King contacted Harmoni, and saw Dr Kuljeet Takhar.
Mrs Peanberg King said Dr Takhar told them Axel’s vital signs were good and his lungs were clear.
He said the infection was probably viral but he gave them a prescription for antibiotics, so they would not have to return if the baby’s condition changed.

Mrs Peanberg King said: 'I had already presented him with symptoms of Axel refusing to feed, and not having a wet nappy, and having difficulty breathing. I wasn’t expecting him to diagnose my son.
'He didn’t give any instructions as to what change should mean, or any advice as to how to manage the symptoms.'
On the next day, the Friday, the child continued to be unwell, but Mrs Peanberg King felt reassured because she had seen a doctor.
On the Saturday, she decided he needed to be seen again. She said: 'On the Friday, I had allowed myself to be reassured, but my gut feeling was taking over.'
She called Harmoni, and when Dr Muttu Shantikumar called them back at 12.45, she said he was 'very abrupt and very short' and made them an appointment for 4pm.
'I called a taxi for 3.30 and was very worried by this stage,' Mrs Peanberg King said.
'I arrived at the Harmoni unit at 3.50, but had to stand in a queue and was told they were busy.
'There were six people in front of Axel. I could not see his chest move, so I pinched his foot but did not get a reaction.
'I asked the receptionist when he would be seen, becoming tearful.

Seven-week old Axel was treated at the Harmoni centre at the Whittington Hospital in north London (pictured) before he died

'She explained there were still three people in front of me, so I sat down again.
'An off-duty paediatric nurse was looking at him, she said, "you need to go through straight away".
'She started running and shouting for a nurse called Linda.'
Mrs Peanberg King said that soon after Axel was taken from her, she heard he was in cardiac arrest.
She said: 'It was a tense situation, doctors were almost fighting among themselves to get everything done.
'But when a doctor came to see me in the relatives’ room, I knew the battle had been lost.'
Pathologist Michael Ashworth, who carried out the post-mortem examination, said there was evidence of abnormality in the lungs.
He said there was extensive pneumonia which had been present probably for more than a day.
Cause of death was bronchopneumonia, he said.
Dr Shantikumar said he set the appointment as 'routine' and the one he arranged was the earliest available.
He did not regard the case as urgent from the information he had.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe suggested to him that the information he gathered in his one-minute telephone triage was not very detailed and he agreed.
She told him: 'If you are going to take on a task as responsible as triaging a seven-week-old baby, you have to do it responsibly.'
He said that if there had been such factors as wheeziness or chesty cough, or not eating or drinking at all, he would have marked it as urgent, in which case the
appointment would have been within two hours.
Dr Giles Armstrong, a consultant paediatrician who battled to save Axel at the Whittington Hospital, said that on two occasions his heart did start, but it could not be sustained.
He said that, in general, babies this young with significant chest infections will deteriorate fairly rapidly once the infection takes hold - perhaps over 24 to 48 hours.
'It's almost certainly the same infection that the entire family had - his sibling and the parents had been ill,' he added.
Some babies catch a bacterial infection on the back of a viral infection, he said.
Sometimes small babies, even when they are diagnosed and treated, fail to survive, but thankfully these cases are in a minority.
'The sooner you detect it, the better your chances of survival.'
 The inquest was adjourned until Thursday morning.

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