A coroner will investigate whether a disabled nine-year-old child from east London died due to “culpable human failures” in his care.
Arin Yarkin, of Pankhurst Avenue in Bow, died at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, after falling ill during a day trip to Bedfords Park in Havering.
He was in the care of a respite service and East London Coroner’s Court heard there may have been shortcomings in staff’s response to his collapse.
Arin’s death was originally attributed to natural causes.
Senior coroner Graeme Irvine said: “Since that time, I have been contacted by Arin’s family, who have disclosed to me that there have been a series of investigations that provoke questions as to whether or not Arin’s death was preventable.”
He will look at whether carers responded appropriately when they first realised Arin was ill, and whether they tried hard enough to save his life when he became unresponsive.
Arin was born 25 weeks premature in 2014, said Mr Irvine, and left with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and “significant neurological injury”.
His death on August 20, 2023, was first referred to the court by Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Queen’s Hospital.
“The circumstances that were provided were that Arin had become unwell whilst in a minibus during a period of respite care when he had been on an outing with other children from the same centre.
“He had been taken by ambulance to Queen’s Hospital, where he was declared deceased.”
A specialist paediatric post-mortem examination gave his cause of death as bronchopneumonia against a backdrop of “quite significant physical and learning disability”.
On August 18, 2023, Arin’s parents had agreed to a period of respite care, whereby he would be taken to a centre called Discovery Home, registered in Whitechapel, “where carers had a series of activities planned”.
Two days later, staff “noted that Arin had woken in the morning and seemed to be hot and sweaty”.
Four workers set off with six children for a trip to Bedfords Park, but during a fuel stop Arin was “noted to be staring blankly and unresponsive”.
Carers dialled 999 and paramedics attended and began CPR, but it was ceased upon Arin’s arrival at Queen’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
New information has “since come to light”, the coroner said, including “an investigation by the care provider about the extent to which staff responded to Arin’s presentation on the morning of the 20th and the extent to which CPR was undertaken by them once he was unresponsive".
He opened an inquest on Monday morning (July 21), saying his investigation would probe “whether or not there were culpable human failures that could have contributed to Arin’s death".
Mr Irvine asked his staff to begin collecting evidence from police, paramedics, Queen’s Hospital, Arin’s family, Tower Hamlets Council’s social services and Discovery Home.
From Discovery Home, he said he would need statements from the staff, copies of Arin’s notes and copies of any investigation reports.
The inquest was provisionally scheduled for February.
Tower Hamlets Council said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Arin and our thoughts continue to be with his family and all who knew him.
“We will be fully cooperating with the inquest and any other investigations and we will carefully consider any findings or recommendations that arise.
“Due to the ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
The Metropolitan Police investigated Arin’s death but said no arrests were made.
Discovery Home was approached for comment.
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