5yo girl with asthma dies after being turned away by doctor for being five minutes late

A five-year-old with severe asthma died hours after a GP declined to see her because she arrived five minutes late to an appointment, a UK inquest has heard.
 
Ellie-May Clark was suffering from an asthma attack and could barely walk when her mother made an emergency appointment at The Grange Clinic in Newport, south Wales on 25 January 2015.
 
Speaking at the inquest into her daughter’s death on Monday, Shanice Clark said Ellie-May was booked in to see Dr Joanna Rowe, the surgery’s lead for child safeguarding, at 5pm.
 
According to The Telegraph, the pair arrived at the clinic five minutes past their appointment time and queued up to see the receptionist, reaching the front of the line between 5:10pm and 5:18pm.
 
Adhering to her “10-minute rule”, Dr Rowe turned Ellie-May and her mother away because they were more than 10 minutes late - despite Clark having told reception she might be late when she booked the appointment.
 
Dr Rowe did not ask about the reason for the five-year-old’s appointment or look at her medical history before telling Clark to return the following morning, the inquest heard.

She also failed to provide advice for what to do if her condition worsened.
 
Clark said the pair returned home and Ellie-May went to bed at 8pm. The mum heard her daughter struggling to breathe at 10:30pm, and went into her room to give her an inhaler, discovering her hands and face had turned blue.
 
"She fell off her bed onto the floor,” Clark told the inquest.
 
Ellie-May, whose asthma symptoms first appeared months before her second birthday, died shortly after being rushed to hospital.
 
The inquest heard Dr Rowe could have arranged for another doctor to see Ellie-May, or could have seen her after her appointment was finished, rather than dismissing her.
 
“I was busy seeing to the other patient that I had with me,” she said when asked why she didn’t pursue these alternative options.
 
The lawyer representing Ellie-May’s family, Rob Sowersby, said Dr Rowe had previously received a letter from a hospital consultant outlining the girl’s risk of "an episode of severe/life threatening asthma".

WATCH: Australian parents are calling for a common asthma medication to carry more warnings about possible side effects. (Post continues.)