Boy, 11, died days after release from hospital

AN 11-year-old boy, who received head injuries playing football in a schoolyard, died days after being released from hospital without a scan, an inquest heard yesterday.

Maeve Phillips said she had brought her only child, Stephen, to Temple Street Children's University Hospital on December 9, 2003 just five hours after he banged his head playing football in the yard of St John Bosco's school on Dublin's Navan Road.

Mrs Phillips had been called to the school after Stephen collided with another fifth-class pupil, hit his head off a wall and then landed on the ground while playing football during a supervised lunch break.