Ella Kissi-Debrah lived on one of Britain’s busiest roads when she suffered a fatal asthma attack

Most little girls bring joy to their families, but it seems there really was something special about Ella Kissi-Debrah.

At the age of nine, she was a talented dancer and singer, had a reading age of 13, played several musical instruments including the piano and guitar and had even been scouted by Millwall football club.

After seeing the Red Arrows, she had set her heart on becoming an RAF pilot when she grew up — an ambition that ended with her untimely death from an asthma attack.

Yet little Ella may still establish her place in history, but for tragic reasons.

For scientists have concluded that London’s unlawfully high levels of traffic fumes are very likely to have contributed to Ella’s condition, prompting human rights lawyers to call for a new inquest in the hope that ‘severe asthma secondary to air pollution exposure’ will be cited as a cause of her death.

The first inquest found that she had died from acute respiratory failure, but did not establish the cause of her asthma.

‘The pain of losing Ella is with me every day, as acute as when she passed away five years ago, and I’d do anything to have her back with us,’ says her mum Rosamund, a psychology and RE teacher.

‘But if her death ultimately leads to an improvement in the air breathed by all children, that will be the next best thing.

‘We had no idea at the time that pollution was a factor in Ella’s condition and, now we know, we want another inquest. 

Ella was a talented dancer and singer, had a reading age of 13, played several musical instruments including the piano and guitar and had even been scouted by Millwall football club

‘This could lead to her death certificate being changed, listing pollution as one of the reasons she died from an asthma attack.

‘I’m told that it would be the first time pollution has been recorded as a killer in this way and that would put vital pressure on the Government to take urgent action to clean up our air.’

Ella’s case has been taken on by Jocelyn Cockburn, a solicitor who specialises in human rights cases. 

‘I believe there are strong grounds for Ella’s inquest to be quashed on the basis that her right to life may have been breached by the Government’s failure to act in relation to unlawful air pollution levels,’ says Ms Cockburn.

Ella lived in Hither Green, South East London, just 80ft from London’s inner ring road, the heavily congested South Circular, until her death in February 2013.

Now, extensive research by Professor Stephen Holgate, an expert in asthma and air pollution at University Hospital Southampton, has revealed that all but one of Ella’s emergency admissions coincided with spikes in air pollution. 

Her death followed one of the worst peaks recorded in her area during that period.

Rosamund in London. The capital, with a population of about 8.7 million, 2.4 million of whom own a vehicle, is known for its smog

Ella was a healthy child until October 2010, when, three months before her seventh birthday, she developed a chest infection that led to a persistent barking cough, which her GP diagnosed as asthma. She was prescribed an inhaler.

About 5.4 million people in the UK are receiving treatment for asthma, 1.1 million of them children, so Rosamund wasn’t too alarmed when the condition was diagnosed in her daughter.

What she didn’t know then was that, on average, three people a day die from asthma in the UK, which has one of the worst records in Europe.

In December that year, a severe bout of coughing, known as ‘coughing syncope’, led to Ella suffering the first of 27 seizures, caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Terrified at seeing her young daughter black out, Rosamund called a neighbour with first aid training, who resuscitated Ella as they waited for the ambulance to take her to Lewisham Hospital.

The next day, once Ella’s oxygen levels were back to normal, she was allowed home.

But, a week later, she had a second attack.

This time, she had to be put into a medically induced coma to relieve pressure on her brain, before she was transferred to the intensive care unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

‘The second time, I called the ambulance as soon as the cough started,’ says Rosamund. ‘Even then, she lost consciousness and her body turned completely blue.’

Three days later, Ella opened her eyes and an MRI scan of her brain suggested there was no lasting damage. 

Ella in her earlier years. Scientists have concluded that London’s unlawfully high levels of traffic fumes are very likely to have contributed to Ella’s condition

Doctors cited ‘probable asthma’ as the cause and she was prescribed a steroid inhaler.

However, Ella had a third episode while she was still at St George’s, sending the crash team rushing to her aid. 

‘The doctors explained that this sort of reaction is very rare in asthmatics,’ says Rosamund.

Yet, over the next two years, Ella needed 24 further emergency admissions to Lewisham or King’s College hospitals. The last, on February 15, 2013, proved fatal.

Ella’s final coughing fit began in the early hours after Rosamund, who was working full-time as a head of year in a nearby secondary school and who is also a mum to twins, now aged 11, had gone to bed.

The previous evening, the family of four — Rosamund’s partner moved out when the children were very young — had enjoyed a special Valentine’s Day meal and Ella had been singing and dancing on the staircase as she went to bed, apparently in fine health.

Ella playing with a friend. Her latest emergency admission to hospital on February 15, 2013, proved fatal

Rosamund’s unwillingness to recount the details of what happened after she woke at 2am to hear her daughter coughing desperately and went with her to Lewisham Hospital is understandable.

‘I tell myself, to try to make sense of it, that a child can only regain consciousness so many times and, on this occasion, Ella didn’t come round.’

Between episodes, Ella was a healthy, active child who excelled at swimming, football and gymnastics and was often star of the show at the local drama and dance school.

She never suffered with breathlessness and her coughing fits appeared to come out of the blue, without warning.

Unbeknown to Rosamund, Professor Holgate read about her daughter’s death in a newspaper and, suspecting a link to pollution levels, took it upon himself to do some further research.

When he told Rosamund about the proximity of Ella’s attacks to peaks in pollution in their area, her daughter’s ordeal began to make some sort of sense.

Data from two air-quality stations, managed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and close to Ella’s home, monitoring nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels, showed that from September 2010 until Ella’s death in February 2013, pollution levels were ‘well above’ EU limits.

Professor Holgate explained that air pollution is a ‘major risk factor for childhood asthma’ and there was a ‘striking association’ between peaks in air pollution close to Ella’s home, as well as her school, Holbeach Primary, and her hospital admissions. 

‘It is noteworthy that the very severe illness that culminated in her death occurred during one of the worse air pollution episodes in her locality,’ says the report submitted to the Attorney General, requesting permission to apply to the High Court for a fresh inquest into Ella’s death.

While air pollution is recognised as being responsible for 50,000 deaths in the UK each year, according to a 2010 Government Environmental Audit report, it is yet to be cited as a contributory cause on any certificate.

London, with a population of about 8.7 million, 2.4 million of whom own a vehicle, is known for its smog.

But other urban areas in the UK are known to exceed EU air-quality limits regularly, particularly for nitrogen dioxide.

And 44 out of 51 cities — including Leeds, Nottingham, Oxford, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Glasgow — have fallen foul of the safer annual thresholds set by the World Health Organisation.

According to a 2016 report by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, air pollution contributes to ‘many chronic health problems’, especially respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

There is also growing evidence of its effects on other diseases such as stroke, dementia, cancer and diabetes, leading to more than six million sick days and an estimated total cost of £22.6 billion a year.

Most pollution in urban areas comes from traffic, with diesel a particular threat, as it produces more dangerous tiny particles and nitrogen oxides.

So it is perhaps no coincidence that, while just 14 per cent of cars were diesel-powered in 2000, by 2016 that figure had risen to 50 per cent and almost all light goods vehicles and vans had made the switch, encouraged by tax incentives, based on the false assumption that it was a more environmentally-friendly fuel.

In fact, scientists have discovered a typical diesel vehicle emits ten times as much nitrogen dioxide as its petrol equivalent.

While the statistics make terrifying reading, what finally makes us take notice may yet be the story of a little girl who will never get to realise her early promise.

So what would her mother — so desperate for change that she has given up teaching to run The Ella Roberta Family Foundation, in the hope of improving the lives of other children with asthma — like to see, in her daughter’s name?

‘We need to phase out diesel immediately, but many people rely on their cars to get to work, so the Government needs to offer financial incentives to trade them in,’ says Rosamund.

‘More also needs to be done to speed us to the stage where electric cars are the norm.’

Given the continuing pollution problems, it is perhaps surprising that Rosamund still lives in the family home and her twins, one of whom also has asthma, are at the same school that their sister had attended.

But, Rosamund says, since Ella’s death, the support they’ve received from their community, including her children’s godparents, has been invaluable.

‘It doesn’t make sense that so much information is available about the health impact of air pollution and the link to thousands of deaths in the UK, yet there has been — as yet — no direct link made to an individual death,’ says Jocelyn Cockburn.

She and Rosamund are now waiting for the Attorney General’s decision on a new inquest.

‘Ella’s case illustrates the hard-hitting human impact of air pollution. The Government has willingly presided over illegal EU air-quality limits since 2010 and this ongoing failure is costing lives.

‘There needs to be an immediate sea change in how air pollution is dealt with in our cities.’

And, if her mother has her way, a little girl cruelly robbed of her future will be the one to make this happen.

The family would appreciate donations to fund their research and education programme. Visit www.justgiving.com/ellaroberta-familyfoundation