Sarah Williment with her son Jack, who was forced to sleep on the floor due to a shortage of beds at a busy time in the Leeds A&E
Sunday, December 8: A photo emerges of four-year-old Jack Willment-Barr lying on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary.
He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with suspected pneumonia.
As there were no beds and the department was experiencing its busiest week since 2016, the boy was left lying on a pile of coats in a clinical treatment room, attached to an oxygen mask.
Mother Sarah Williment, a primary school assistant from Leeds, described the situation as a ‘crisis’.
She said: ‘[Jack] spent eight-and-a-half hours in A&E… Jack wasn’t provided with a bed on a ward until 13-and-a-half hours later.’
Jack was eventually diagnosed with influenza A and tonsillitis.
Monday, December 9: Health Secretary Matt Hancock is sent to the hospital in a bid to diffuse the row.
Monday, December 9: The Cabinet minister was confronted by Labour activists as he left Leeds General Infirmary.
BBC and ITV reporters suggested that one of Mr Hancock’s advisers had been punched as things ‘turned nasty’.
Tory sources said they believed a protestor, named as Professor Paul Chatterton of Leeds University, had hit the adviser – understood to be Jamie Njoku-Goodwin – in the face.
However, video later emerged which showed Mr Njoku-Goodwin had been accidentally struck by the protestor’s hand as the latter pointed and both men were looking in different directions.
Conservative sources claimed Labour had been ‘whipping up’ activists to spoil Tory events, and there had been offers to pay for taxi fares to go and confront Mr Hancock.
But Labour accused the Tories of having ‘resorted to bare faced lying’.
Monday, December 9, 5.13pm: Professor Chatterton took to Twitter to share his shock at reports the aide had been punched.
He said: ‘I’m the guy holding the bike in yellow. I was on my way home. There were 3 of us there. A few comments then it was all over. Punching? how strange.
‘I work 200 metres away from the hospital and was on my way home. Wow.’
Monday, December 9, 5.13pm: Earlier that day, in a bizarre spat, Boris Johnson took an ITV reporter’s phone and put it in his pocket after being confronted with the picture of Jack.
Speaking on the election trail in the north of England, the Prime Minister said sorry and pointed to the huge investment being pledged by the Tories.
But when ITV reporter Jo Pike tried to show him the picture of the boy on his phone, Mr Johnson declined to look at it. He eventually took the device and put it in his pocket.
Earlier that day, in a bizarre spat, Boris Johnson took an ITV reporter’s phone and put it in his pocket after being confronted with the picture of Jack
When Pike described what the premier had done, Mr Johnson retrieved the mobile and did inspect the picture.
‘It’s a terrible, terrible photo. And I apologise obviously to the families and all those who have terrible experiences in the NHS,’ he said.
‘But what we are doing is supporting the NHS, and on the whole I think patients in the NHS have a much, much better experience than this poor kid has had.
‘That’s why we’re making huge investments into the NHS, and we can only do it if we get Parliament going, if we unblock the current deadlock, and we move forward.’
At the end of the interview, Mr Johnson said: ‘I’m sorry to have taken your phone. There you go.’
Tuesday, December 10: A post claiming the photo of Little Jack was fake went viral.
The post read: ‘Very interesting. A good friend of mine is a senior nursing sister at Leeds Hospital,’ before claiming the photo was staged and that the child was placed on the floor purely for a photo before going back onto a trolley.
The original post sparked fake bot accounts who shared the same words.
Tuesday, December 10: The woman who first shared the post insisted that her Facebook account was hacked.
She said: ‘I was hacked. I am not a nurse and I certainly don’t know anyone in Leeds.’
The woman has since received death threats and been left suicidal.