Roman Barr

A coronial investigation into the death of Roman Louie BARR, aged 22 who died on 14  December 2023, was opened on 20th June 2024 and concluded on 3 March 2026. The inquest was conducted without a jury. The conclusion reached was a short factual  narrative: “The deceased died as a result of an asthma attack. Information indicating the need for an  urgent ambulance response was not obtained, and because no ambulance was available for several hours, he was taken to hospital by his family. On the balance of probabilities, earlier intervention by an emergency ambulance would have prevented his death.” 

Medical cause of death:  1a) Asthma

On 14 December 2023, Roman Louie Barr suffered an asthma attack. His father collected him  from work and took him home, where Roman used his nebuliser without improvement. Three calls were made to the ambulance service. During these calls, Roman was assessed as  Category 2, and the family were twice advised that no ambulance would be available for  several hours. They were asked whether they could transport him to hospital themselves and  took the decision to do so.  Evidence established that at the time of the first call, Roman was critically unwell, displaying  symptoms including bluish lips, but this information was not elicited during triage. Roman was  of mixed ethnicity and had a darker skin tone, as his father explained to the call handler. The  NHS Pathways question requiring confirmation that the patient was “a deathly colour” was not  understood by his father. Clearer prompts—such as asking whether the lips were blue or  grey—were not asked. A recommendation made during the subsequent review to amend this  NHS Pathways wording was not accepted by those responsible for the system’s content.  Ambulance availability was severely constrained due to significant delays in hospital  handovers, leaving no crews free to respond. On the balance of probabilities, had clearer  wording been used and the relevant information obtained, Roman would have been  categorised as Category 1, for which an ambulance would be expected to arrive within  approximately ten minutes even during surge conditions.  While being driven to hospital, Roman suffered a cardiac arrest. His mother moved into the  footwell of the passenger side and commenced CPR as they continued their journey.

On arrival at the hospital, the family vehicle was involved in a collision, during which Roman’s  mother sustained serious injuries. Roman could not be resuscitated and died shortly after arrival.  I also heard evidence that Roman had been using his blue (salbutamol) inhaler more  frequently than recommended, indicating poor asthma control, and that neither he nor his  family were aware of the clinical significance of this increased use. Following his death, the GP practice conducted a review and introduced measures to better identify and monitor patients  with high salbutamol use, including keeping a list of such patients, automatically booking  reviews when further inhalers are requested, liaising with community pharmacists, and placing  alerts on patient records to support timely assessment.  Notwithstanding the Drug Safety Update issued on 25 April 2025 reminding clinicians of the  risks associated with increased salbutamol use, the evidence in this case indicates that the  importance of excessive reliever use may still not be fully recognised by patients or by primary  care.

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and your organisation have the power to act.