The grieving parents of a little boy have claimed they heard hospital staff laughing as they turned off their son’s life-support. Haroon Rashid, 41, said he heard the nurses and doctors who had treated his son, Muhammad Ayaan Haroon, at Sheffield Children’s Hospital laughing as he and his wife made their final goodbyes. The dad said he was “so upset” as he alleged the staff continued laughing even after a relative asked them to stop.

Mr Rashid and his family said goodbye to Ayaan, five, on March 13, just over a week after he was admitted to hospital with trouble breathing on March 5.

He had a history of respiratory illnesses and a rare genetic condition, Hace 1, that caused developmental delays.

The father-of-four, a taxi driver from Sheffield, said Ayaan was surrounded by family members when the hospital switched off his life support at 2.30am that morning.

But laughter coming from behind the thin curtain separating the grieving relatives from other patients left them “very, very angry”, and Mr Rashid has submitted a formal complaint to hospital chiefs.

He said that, aside from his family, there was “no one else on the ward apart from staff and one other small child behind the curtain”.

He added workers would “surely” have known Ayaan’s machine was about to be switched off but “continued laughing after my relative asked them to stop”.

The dad added the laughter was “highly insensitive”, and the 10-page report he and his wife, Fakhra Dibi, 45, have submitted details similar concerns from earlier during his treatment.

He said he heard nurses laughing in the background when his wife called him sobbing after she was informed her son’s condition was deteriorating just a few days before his death.

Ms Dibi was told Ayaan’s chances of survival were slim due to an Adenovirus infection.

Rather than take her into a private room to deliver the devastating news, she was told in the ward “with nurses who were laughing in the background”.

Mr Rashid complained that something went wrong “every day in the treatment of my son, adding staff “didn’t listen to my years of experience in caring for my children”.

While he is not a doctor, the dad said he had an intimate understanding of his son’s history and “knew what treatment my son needed from the outset”.

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He added: “My son was shown no compassion, no dignity, no respect and no humanity.”

Ayaan’s cause of death was listed as adenovirus, and coroners have not yet decided whether to launch an inquest.

The experience has left Mr Rashid fearing his 12-year-old daughter, who is an outpatient at the same hospital, is not safe “in the care of the staff”.

The dad said he highlighted the hospital’s alleged failings “so no other child suffers like my son”.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has pledged to investigate the family’s accusations.

Dr Jeff Perring, the trust’s medical director, expressed his condolences and said the staff who treated Ayaan would “share in expressing these condolences”.

He said the loss of a child is something the hospital takes “very seriously”, and that colleagues “pride themselves on providing the best clinical and pastoral care for all children and young people who need it”.

He added: “There will be a thorough internal investigation of the care and treatment Ayaan received at the hospital between 5 and 13 March which will cover the concerns raised in Mr Rashid’s complaint.”

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