In December 2023, 34-year-old Dave Onawelo told staff in the hospital emergency department at Whipps Cross Hospital in east London that he was experiencing a sickle cell crisis. While waiting to be seen, his mother raised concerns that Onawelo’s condition was worsening, but was told by hospital staff that she was being anxious. Over the following hours, he became unresponsive and died.
In May 2022, alone in a prison cell on the healthcare unit at HMP Pentonville in north London, 43-year-old Wayne Bayley told prison officers that he could not breathe. Bayley did not receive medical assistance and died hours later.
