The Nigerian author and activist Sarah Ladipo Manyika has accused a London hospital of systematically stalling an independent review into the death of her 19-year-old son, citing a pattern of failures that she claims are emblematic of wider issues in the National Health Service. In an emotional interview, Manyika told this newspaper that the trust responsible for her son’s care had repeatedly delayed the investigation, leaving her family without answers for nearly two years.
Her son, Tunde, died in October 2021 after being admitted to St James’s University Hospital in Leeds with a severe asthma attack. An internal review by the hospital found that staff failed to monitor his oxygen levels correctly and did not escalate his deteriorating condition to senior doctors. However, the hospital’s trust has resisted calls for an external, independent review, which Manyika argues is necessary to prevent similar deaths.
“I am not just a grieving mother,” she said, her voice steady but heavy with anger. “I am a witness to a system that repeatedly fails Black families, that hides behind bureaucracy, and that treats some lives as less valuable than others. The hospital’s delay is not an accident: it is a choice.”
Manyika, the author of acclaimed novels including *In Dependence* and *The Wrong Sort*, has become a prominent voice on racial inequality in healthcare. She points to studies showing Black patients in the UK are more likely to die from asthma, heart disease, and maternal complications, and less likely to receive timely treatment. Her son, a talented musician and student, had been in perfect health until the day he died.
A spokesperson for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said they had “offered our deepest condolences” and were “committed to learning from this tragic case”. They stated that a “full internal investigation” had been completed and that “further independent expertise” was being sought. However, Manyika claims that the trust has rejected her requests for a specific type of external review that would include experts in ethnicity and healthcare.
The case has now attracted the attention of the Health Ombudsman, who is considering whether to intervene. Campaigners argue that the pattern of delays is symptomatic of a system that resists accountability, particularly when the victims are from ethnic minorities. “The NHS is a cherished institution, but it is not beyond critique,” said Dr. Kwame McKenzie, a psychiatrist and author. “When families like the Manyikas face such obstruction, it erodes the very trust that the service depends on.”
Manyika has launched a petition calling for a mandatory independent review whenever a patient dies from a preventable condition, especially where racial disparities are suspected. She is also fundraising for a legal challenge to force the trust to cooperate.
“I do not want any other mother to sit in a room, holding her son’s hand, while he fights for breath, only to be told that mistakes were made but no one will be held accountable,” she said. “The review is not just for Tunde: it is for every Black child in this country who deserves the same standard of care as any other.”
The hospital trust has said it will provide a further update “in due course”. For Manyika, that is not enough. “Time is a luxury I no longer have,” she said. “But I will not stop until justice is done.”
