James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – The death of an 11-year-old boy from an asthma attack was entirely preventable, says a lawsuit accusing Philadelphia’s Department of Health Services of ignoring years of warning signs about his home life.
Aisha Clayton, the administrator of the Estate of Nayshaun Uch Williams, sued the city, its DHS, several individuals, Turning Points for Children and the Greater Philadelphia Community Alliance on Oct. 27 in federal court.
Williams died two years ago while in his grandmother’s custody after routinely being sent to school without his rescue inhaler. The month before his fatal attack, he’d had one at school that required a trip to the hospital.
The school nurse told DHS that Nayshaun’s grandmother, Patricia Clayton, would not respond to calls or other attempts to communicate with her to discuss the need for Nayshaun to have an inhaler on him at all times.
The nurse even made appointments at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for Oct. 13 and Oct. 16 but despite transportation being provided, Clayton never sent Nayshaun to the hospital.
“DHS did not take any action once these appointments were missed,” the lawsuit says. “DHS failed to remove Nayshaun or arrange supervised medical care when Patricia Clayton caused Nayshaun to miss his appointments.
“Despite this, DHS closed its investigation of medical negligent as ‘Unfounded’ on Oct. 19, 2023.”
Concerns that Patricia Clayton lived with a registered sex offender prompted a 2019 DHS investigation. He walked Nayshaun, then 6, to school and made grooming statements to him and other children, the suit says.
The investigation was closed, but Turning Points started providing in-home safety services. They ceased after less than five months, after Clayton refused to send Nayshaun to therapy.
“By closing Nayshaun’s case with zero goals achieved and imposing no consequences for Clayton’s refusal to provide necessary care, TPFC sent a clear and deadly message: medical and therapeutical neglect of this vulnerable child would be tolerated without accountability,” the suit says.
Over the next four years, Nayshaun missed school to the point of chronic truancy, the suit says, while Clayton’s substance abuse and mental health conditions went ignored. DHS was again contacted in May 2023 with reports Nayshaun was vaping at school and cut another child with a knife.
He “terrorizes the neighborhood,” one complaint says. Investigators closed their probe on July 7, 2023, citing “insufficient evidence.”
Months later, he was in the hospital for an asthma attack. On the morning of Oct. 28, he woke his grandmother because he couldn’t breathe.
A nebulizer didn’t work because Nayshaun needed a fast-acting inhaler, the suit says, but there was no medicine. He died before paramedics could get him to a hospital.
Riley Ross III of Mincey Fitzpatrick Ross represents the plaintiff.
