A four-year-old boy who died the morning after doctors described his condition as "non-urgent" passed away from natural causes after his illness "overwhelmed his body", an inquest has found.
Ronaldo Iosif, four, was rushed to A&E at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool when his parents became concerned about his high temperature.
A coroner at a three-day inquest has ruled the hospital was not to blame for the youngster's death.
Instead, sadly the lad - described by his dad as the "loveliest little boy" - passed away after the illness "overwhelmed the body", the Liverpool Echo reports.
Ronaldo's dad, of Wavertree, spoke through a Romanian translator as he described his son as "the loveliest little boy".
In line with standard practice, Ronaldo was given a routine "triage" examination by a nurse at the busy A&E centre, but she found nothing to suggest the boy was seriously ill and he was given the lowest level of priority to be seen by a doctor.
The inquest heard there was a disputed account between Ronaldo's parents and the hospital about how long the family were told to wait before he received a more thorough medical examination.
The family claimed they were "advised to leave" the hospital, but Alder Hey said they would never recommend that and the family were told they were welcome to wait until a doctor became available, which could be up to three hours.
Ronaldo's dad, David, 30, finally decided to leave when he asked for an ice lolly to be given to Ronaldo from the hospital's store. However he was told this could take 20 minutes to arrange because the hospital's priority was dealing with patients.
The parents brought Ronaldo back to A&E the next morning after his condition worsened overnight, and on this occasion he was rushed to a resuscitation unit.
Tragically, despite frantic efforts to save him, Ronaldo suffered a cardiac arrest and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
A post mortem gave the cause of death as sepsis caused by a meningococcal infection.
In her summing up to the jury, assistant Liverpool and Wirral coroner Kate Ainge said the illness which Ronaldo suffered from could cause a rapid decline by "overwhelming the body."
She added there was not enough evidence that a failure contributed to the cause of his death, and there was only one conclusion which could be reached, which was that Ronaldo had died of natural causes.
