A nine-year-old boy died after a nurse failed to properly care for him.

Penelope Walker failed to treat the boy after he went into a seizure for 45 minutes in front of her at a medical unit.

The child was rushed to hospital but suffered a heart attack and died.

Now the nurse has been banned from practising medicine.

Dravet Syndrome The boy, who is believed to be from Brighton, had the disorder Dravet Syndrome, where children suffer from repeated seizures.

He was being cared for as a patient at the NHS-run Chailey Heritage Clinical Services unit near Lewes when he became unwell.

Walker worked at the service, run by Sussex Community NHS Trust, and had been the lead nurse caring for the boy on 42 occasions before the day he died, April 15 2010.

But when he became sick and started going into a 45-minute seizure she said she did not know if this was normal as “she did not know the patient very well”.

Series of errors

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) report said Walker made a series of errors including failing to clear his airway or give him oxygen.

An ambulance was called and the boy, who was with his grandmother, was taken to hospital where he died.

When NMC officials launched an investigation into the incident they asked for Walker’s notes on the case but she said she did not have any.

An NMC report said: “Mrs Walker accepted the boy had been at risk of aspiration, that she failed to use suction or oxygen and that she had failed to keep observations.

Gross misconduct

“During interview Mrs Walker became angry and emotional.

Walked out “She stated she could not take any more, walked out of the interview and failed to return.”

Health bosses originally suspended the nurse in May 2010 ahead of a disciplinary hearing.

She was later found guilty of gross misconduct and dismissed.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Community NHS Trust said: “We support the decision to have Mrs Walker struck off the NMC register.”

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