My 15-year-old brother died from an asthma attack despite us begging authorities to help him for FOUR YEARS. They just kept making excuse after excuse. He was due to see a specialist three days AFTER he died

Published: 22:52, 2 July 2026 | Updated: 22:52, 2 July 2026 Jordan Burnett has spent years learning how to fight. A qualified personal trainer and coach, an international boxing champion and a familiar face to hundreds of thousands of fans on social media, the 29-year-old from Finglas knows what it means to take a hit and keep going. But the hardest battle of his life was fought in very different circumstances. Jordan’s younger brother Killian died of cardiac arrest from an acute asthma attack in March 2022 after experiencing a four-year wait to see a specialist. The heartbroken parents of Killian – David Burnett and Catherine Trevers – and their family secured a High Court settlement last week against Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), which included six nervous-shock actions and a formal apology. This followed a 2025 inquest that concluded Killian died due to medical misadventure and missed opportunities in his care. Killian Burnett was just 15 when he died from an asthma attack in March 2022 For Jordan, the settlement brings a measure of accountability, but it cannot erase the memories of watching his little brother deteriorate and die before his eyes. It’s clear that although the legal battle has been won, what the Burnetts went through is not something you can ever truly recover from. ‘I’ve been going to a psychiatrist, I’m going to counselling, I’ve been told that I’ll probably be affected by what happened to Killian for the rest of my life,’ Jordan says simply. As the eldest of six boys, Jordan was the one who tried to save his brother’s life countless times, performing CPR as his brother fought for breath during his severe asthma attacks. Killan (far left) and Jordan (far right) with their parents and other brothers As Killian’s condition worsened over a four-year period prior to his death, it got to the point where Jordan was afraid to even go to work in case he was needed to try to save his brother’s life. He found himself stepping into a role no brother should ever have to take on. He recalls giving Killian CPR during some of his worst episodes as he waited for an ambulance to come, lying him down on the floor and trying to coach him through the panic that accompanies the terrifying sensation of not being able to breathe. ‘I’d be showing him how to put his hands over his head and trying to calm him down so he could get more air into his lungs,’ he says. In the final months, ambulances were called several times and Killian, once a mischievous, outgoing child, began to retreat to his room. ‘He was deteriorating before our eyes,’ says Jordan. ‘He couldn’t play sports. He couldn’t go to school. He stopped going out and for Killian, this was so strange. He used to love going out. You’d never even see him from one end of the day to the next.’ Heartbreakingly, he reveals that Killian too was aware of how desperately sick he was. ‘He would put on a front but he knew it,’ says Jordan. His fun-loving little brother’s asthma had resulted in numerous attendances at Temple Street Children’s Hospital over his childhood, beginning in early 2013 when he was six years old. Memorials to Killian in the family home One of his first serious attacks happened when he was still in primary school, with an attack so severe he collapsed on a road while walking home from school. Killian was prescribed inhalers and steroids but his condition continued to worsen, his early teenage years marred by multiple ambulance journeys and Emergency Department visits. He had been referred to see a respiratory consultant in December 2017 but four cancellations meant he never received the specialist assessment he so desperately needed to save his young life. ‘He wasn’t sleeping as he was suffering about two attacks a night,’ says Jordan. ‘He started getting skinny and his skin started going white. ‘It was like the life had started going out of his body. ‘I think at some stage he just came to terms with the fact he wasn’t getting any help from the hospital. Every time he went to ER he was sent home without anything changing. ‘That’s why he wanted to stay up in his room and wanted our dad to be with him there. I think he knew he was going to die.’ A football-themed tribute to Killian, who died aged just 15 It’s so hard to comprehend that in Ireland in 2026, a child with a highly treatable condition suffered such a fate. This country has one of the highest prevalence rates of asthma in the world, affecting one in ten adults and one in five children, but with a proper management plan, individuals can lead normal, active lives. However, roughly 3 to 10 per cent of the 450,000 people with asthma here live with severe, difficult-to-treat asthma like Jordan. Last year, a report from the Asthma Society of Ireland revealed that the average wait for a severe asthma diagnosis in Ireland is a staggering six years. ‘He was due to go to Temple Street so many times and there were excuses of being short on staff, or specialists would be going on holidays or Covid hit and appointments were cancelled – he never once had a proper assessment or investigation,’ says Jordan. ‘He needed to see a specialist and be under specialist care. He was getting worse, not better. They just kept adding to his medication. He was on too much stuff.’ In the early hours of March 22, 2022, the tragedy that was looming for years took place. Jordan, who is dad to two daughters – Donni, 4, and six-month-old Jordi – was living in a separate outhouse in the garden with Donni and his girlfriend when he heard screams coming from the family home. ‘I knew this time he was dead,’ says Jordan. When he reached the house, Killian was still fighting for his life. ‘He was on the ground in his bedroom, all of us were around him,’ Jordan recalls. ‘I just fell to my knees. He was moving, gasping for air and I started working on him but I just saw him changing colour and there was blood coming out of his mouth. We were panicking by now, the ambulance seemed to be taking so long.’ Killian was taken to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. The family desperately hoped for a miracle, and Jordan repeatedly rang his father looking for updates. But what followed was no miracle, and it remains one of the most painful moments of his life. Jordan Burnett, Killian's parents David Burnett and Catherine Trevers, and his grandmother Kathleen Trevers at the court this week. Photo: Collins Courts Jordan sat his younger brothers – Aaron, Adam, Leon and David, who was just eight at the time – down, and told them the news no family should have to hear. ‘I told them, “our little brother is dead”,’ says Jordan, his voice cracking at the memory. ‘It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ Three days after he died at the age of 15, Killian was finally due to attend an appointment to see a specialist. It had come years too late. In a serious incident review, Temple Street Hospital found missed opportunities to manage and provide a higher level of care to him and missed opportunities for waiting list management and access to specialist reviews. The family have continually campaigned not just for recognition of the negligence shown to Killian, but to help highlight the chasm of care that exists on asthma waiting lists so that no other family should go though a similar horror. ‘We were told at Jordan’s inquest that no child with asthma should be left waiting more than two weeks for the care they need,’ Jordan says. ‘But we want to see this honoured in practice. I’m worried for my own daughter Donni. She also has asthma – we all do – and has been on a waiting list to see a specialist since before Christmas. ‘My newborn was born at Christmas and even when she coughed in the bed, I was waking up, jumping out of my sleep, panicking. It just brings back all the memories of Killian. I can’t live that way.’ A tribute to Killian's favourite things in the family home The apology signed by the chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland, Lucy Nugent, that was read to the High Court last week acknowledged the shortcomings in the care that Killian received in CHI and concluded by saying that CHI ‘drives at all times to optimise patient care and we will continue to ensure that best practice is at the forefront of our clinical service to all our patients’. Eilis Ní Chaithnía, chief executive of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said: ‘Our deepest sympathies are with the Burnett family, and with every family who has lost a child or loved one to asthma. Childhood deaths from asthma are rare in Ireland, but each one has a devastating effect. ‘They are a stark reminder that while asthma is common and largely manageable, it is also unpredictable and must always be taken seriously.’ Most people with asthma can and should be cared for in general practice, but there are patients whose asthma is severe, difficult to control, or who are experiencing repeated flare-ups, emergency attendances or hospitalisations, says Eilis. ‘It is critical that those patients have timely access to specialist care, including consultants and respiratory nurses, who can help confirm diagnosis, optimise treatment, reduce future risk and support families to manage asthma with confidence. ‘The Asthma Society has called for every severe asthma centre of excellence to have at least one fully qualified advanced nurse practitioner in post. ANPs are central to strengthening severe asthma services: they can help manage severe asthma caseloads, allow consultants to focus on complex and high-risk patients, help free up waiting lists and support fairer access to specialist asthma care across the country. ‘The Minister has recognised the critical role of ANPs in specialist clinics, and we hope to see concrete action this year. ‘The Asthma Society also provides free access to specialist respiratory nurses through our Adviceline (1800 44 54 64), which can be especially helpful between GP or clinic appointments. ‘Our nurses can help people understand their asthma, prepare for medical reviews, check inhaler technique, talk through an Asthma Action Plan, and know when they need to seek further medical help.’ Jordan tries to imagine what his little brother would be like now, aged 20 Had Jordan received the care he needed, he would be have been 20 years old next month. Jordan smiles when asked what life might have looked like for his mischievous younger brother. ‘He was a divil,’ he chuckles. ‘An absolute character. See on a day like this, when the sun is out, he’d be swimming, jumping in the sea or the canals. Everyone knew and loved him in the community. ‘He knew how to make money, I tell you that, he used to have pockets full of money. ‘He’d go round collecting the trolleys and helping people with their shopping. ‘We called him the Euro Boy – we have it on his gravestone and everything,’ says Jordan, who visits his brother’s resting place and leaves coins at his graveside. ‘We were all able to stick together as a family and show strength, and we kept fighting since the day he died,’ he continues. ‘I’m glad that we won a fight and that we get to put it behind us and Killian gets to rest in peace now. But it can’t happen to another child.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.