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The father of an eight-year-old girl who died in the Manchester Arena bombing has refused to accept the apologies of emergency services for their failures in responding to the attack.
Andrew Roussos told Sky News he believes “100%” that his “fighter” daughter Saffie-Rose would have survived had the emergency response been different.
Saffie was the youngest victim of the atrocity, in which 22 innocent people died in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
An inquiry examining the emergency response to the attack found that “significant aspects… went wrong” and one victim, John Atkinson, would likely have survived had it not been for those “inadequacies”.
The report also found there was a “remote possibility” that Saffie could have survived had she received “different treatment and care”.
Responding to the report, Mr Roussos said: “We had to fight for this. For the last two years we’ve been fighting.
“We know Saffie as a person – she would do everything she possibly could to stay alive, and she did.
“She was alive nearly an hour after detonation. She was talking, she was sipping water, she understood what was happening.
“Saffie did all she could to survive but didn’t get that chance to survive.
“A human spirit goes a long way in this. And Saffie hung in there the best she could for a chance to survive.
“And we believe 100% that if she got that chance, she would have survived.”
Asked if he accepted the apologies of emergency services for their response to the bombing, he replied: “No, I don’t accept apologies.
“You know, what I do expect is for them to be honest and put their hands up, particularly throughout the inquiry, and admit to the failings because without admitting to the failings, how can you change for the future?
“Now I’ve heard for the last two years, excuse after excuse, that that night went well – but it didn’t go well.”
Asked if he believed Saffie would have survived had the emergency response been better, he replied: “100%… because she’s a fighter like her mum. She would fight to the end.”
He described Saffie as a “one-of-a-kind person” who was “full of life, full of laughter, full of happiness.”
Mr Roussos has previously described the emergency response as “shameful” and “inadequate”, with some experts telling the inquiry that Saffie could have survived had the response been different.
However Sir John Saunders, chairman of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, concluded that “there was only a remote possibility that she could have survived with different treatment and care”.
“On the evidence that I have accepted, what happened to Saffie-Rose Roussos represents a terrible burden of injury,” he said.
“It is highly likely that her death was inevitable even if the most comprehensive and advanced medical treatment had been initiated immediately after injury.”
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