UK Politics

Ella Moulsdale, Zuhrah’s next of kin, said that Zuhrah had repeatedly buzzed for a nurse and begged her to conduct basic medical tests.

“As she continued to be ignored, she then started to beg for an ambulance to come because she knew that something was happening,” Moulsdale said.

A prison officer told her to wait for the night nurse to start her shift at 11pm.

At 10:30pm the nurse arrived to take her vitals – a series of tests to measure key bodily functions – and an ECG (electrocardiogram) test. She said she would be back in 10 minutes with the test results.

By 12:30am, the nurse had still not returned, so Zuhrah buzzed prison medical staff for help, saying “Can you ring an ambulance? I’m scared”. They hung up on her.

“I've got her on the phone and listening to her audibly in pain and unable to respond properly. And all I can do is ask her to breathe heavier so I can ensure that she's still breathing. I'm not a first responder, I'm not a medical practitioner,” Grant told MEE.

“This is how people die in their cells. She could barely get up to call me, and all I could do was try to call for the nurse for her, and then get back to listening to her cry in pain and struggle to breathe."

At 2am, the nurse returned and informed her that “you don’t decide if you go to hospital, I do”.

Meanwhile, Zuhrah’s friends repeatedly called the prison requesting an ambulance, who they said “kept hanging up” on them. They tried ringing for ambulances directly, but were informed that this would have to be arranged through the prison.

“We were being told by ambulance operators that they have no power over whether an ambulance goes to a prison or not, because it is up to the prison whether they will accept an ambulance," Moulsdale said.

“If someone collapses in a prison, they don't get an ambulance sent to them. The prison gets to decide.”

From 8am onwards, four NHS doctors also repeatedly tried to contact the prison. James Smith, a doctor who supports the hunger strikers and their families, told MEE that he was put through to an answer machine when he called the prison.

At 9:30am, the prison finally called an ambulance after Zuhrah lost consciousness. The prison did not notify Zuhrah’s next of kin about her hospitalisation, despite promising they would.