According to the BBC, Lee Freeman-Skinner and Shaunna Bent called an ambulance to the surgery in an attempt to ensure that their son would be treated quicker.
They had taken the boy, named Jaydon, to the surgery in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, after he developed a high temperature. He died just hours later in hospital with meningitis.
NHS Gloucestershire has stated that they will investigate the circumstances on the case. The couple themselves have stated that they will lodge a official complaint.
Eventually a doctor from the surgery did attend to Jaydon as the ambulance was on its way but the couple were understandably upset by the surgery’s slow response to their situation.
The lead doctor at the surgery, Dr Simon Silver, stated that “Meningococcal septicaemia is an absolutely devastating illness. Prompt treatment as in this case can sometimes be powerless.”
Mr Freeman-Skinner acknowledged this assessment but said of the surgery’s treatment of his son that “Even though it might not have helped, you don’t know.
“I still have that doubt in my head….could it have helped?”
It is impossible not to sympathise with the couple, they have just lost their son and are clearly devastated by what has happened and looking for someone to blame. But it is true that this form of meningitis is deadly, with around 40% of those contracting the disease dying from it and so it needs treating as quickly as possible, and so Jaydon was undoubtedly in need of urgent treatment.
However, the speed with which Jaydon died appears to suggest that there was little more doctors could have done to keep him alive by the point he reached the surgery and later the hospital. It will be easier to establish whether the surgery might be deemed to have fallen below their duty of care to Jaydon following the conclusion of the NHS investigation in to the circumstances.
