Cheryl Cressey's 10 -year-old son William died after doctors failed to spot he had meningitis

A hospital was criticised by a coroner for failing to spot that a 10-year-old boy was gravely ill, later dying from meningitis.

William Cressey died from the killer brain condition a day after he had been sent home from Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre heard that when the schoolboy returned to the hospital and was in a lot of pain he begged one doctor: "Please help me - if you don't help me, I'm going to die."

Yet the desperate youngster was refused antibiotics until it was too late and eventually suffered a massive seizure, slipping into a coma from which he never recovered.

Newcastle Coroner David Mitford recorded a narrative verdict. He said William's death was due to: "Natural causes to which a delay in giving anti-biotic treatment for meningitis may have contributed."

In a detailed statement the coroner explained his conclusion, saying it was a "reasonable decision" for doctors to have admitted William to the hospital on the evening of February 27, 2005 in order to observe his condition, but going on to criticise the hospital for the way it observed William during that day.

He said: "The evidence of that observation in the notes is startlingly inadequate - there being no narrative detail whatsoever and only one entry in the temperature chart and three entries of pain killers being administered during that day."

"The evidence of qualified nursing observation during the afternoon was unsatisfactory and it seems any observation undertaken had been left to auxiliaries and went unrecorded and unreported."

Mr Mitford then criticised the doctor who discharged William on the evening of February 28, saying: "There are no notes, inadequate discharge documentation and there was no medical examination.

"The evidence from the doctor who discharged him leaves me to feel that her involvement was marginal, unsatisfactory and she had failed to carry out any adequate assessment of William's condition at that time."