Duncan Gardham, The Telegraph (UK), reports:

Daniel Hindle, 17, an A-level student from Richmond, Sheffield, had a ring put through his lip and his girlfriend had her eyebrow pierced.

His mother, Christine Anderson, broke down in the witness box as she told the inquest in Sheffield that the first she knew about the piercing was when her son walked through the door.

“My first reaction was shock. ‘Eurgh,’ I thought. I suppose it’s a normal motherly reaction.”

Mrs Anderson said she called a doctor when he developed a fever nearly two weeks later. The locum took two minutes to examine Daniel, before prescribing medicine for an upset stomach.

Two days later Daniel started hallucinating and was rushed to hospital. Mrs Anderson said her son had been born with a weak heart but was living a normal life.

She said she had talked to a doctor at the Northern General Hospital and added: “I thought it was something to do with his heart, but he told me Daniel had septicaemia.

“It was then that I told him about the lip piercing. He seemed to agree that that would be the cause.”

Naomi Storey, 21, Daniel’s girlfriend, told the jury that her piercing, at Body Poppers, had also become infected.

The piercer, Emma Thompson, denied breaking hygiene rules. The inquest continues.