A Hither Green mum still has questions over the final moments of her daughter's life, who died due to an unusual type of asthma which baffled doctors.

Southwark Coroners’ Court heard that nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah could be fine one moment - playing football for Millwall or swimming - but then suddenly be hospitalised by a severe asthma attack.

Doctors at Lewisham Hospital knew the Holbeach Primary School  pupil well and had sought help from experts at Great Ormond Street and King’s College Hospital in diagnosing the youngster’s rare condition.

They concluded she may have a “dangerous combination” of severe asthma and cough syncope - a condition which could cause her to lose consciousness.

On February 15 last year, doctors’ worst fears were realised soon after an ambulance crew was sent out to the family home in Wellmeadow Road. 

Mum Rossy Kissi-Debrah explained: “From her behaviour I just knew this wasn’t going to be a great night for us. I can just tell.”

Paramedic Philip Fridd told the court on September 26: “She was very upset and distressed and I was doing my best to try and keep her as calm as I could.”

But the court heard Mr Fridd say he mixed up two sets of observations and threw away printouts from monitors on the way to hospital.

He was extensively grilled by the family’s lawyer Rory Badenoch over the amount of monitoring that went on, how the girl was carried out of her house and the type of treatment she received after having a seizure on the way to hospital.

After her seizure, Ella had appeared unresponsive and, despite extensive resuscitation attempts in hospital, her condition worsened rapidly. 

Dr Williams told the court: “It was very rapid and when she got to the hospital her heart rate was very low. She was making no respiratory effort.”

The girl was pronounced dead shortly before 3.30am.

Her mum, who has set up a charitable foundation in her daughter’s name, paid tribute to her daughter in court, saying: “She’d swim 25 laps of a swimming pool and she’s play for Millwall football club, run up and down on the field and I would stand there and hold my breath.

“She used to recover so rapidly.

She went on: “She basically loved life, so I wasn’t able to stop her from doing what she wanted to do.”

In a narrative conclusion, coroner Phillip Barlow ruled Ella had suffered a severe asthma attack followed by a seizure.

He said: “No doctor could say that the result would have been any different even if the seizure had taken place in hospital. Matters were that serious.”

For more on the foundation, visit the Ella Roberta Family Foundation Facebook page.