Parents of baby boy who died of sepsis to meet Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt
The parents of a baby boy from Cornwall who died of sepsis after a series of NHS failings are meeting with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt this afternoon.
Melissa Mead, from Penryn, has written an open letter to the Health Secretary calling on him to commit to a sepsis awareness campaign after her baby boy William died when medics repeatedly failed to spot he had contracted the infection.
She says she wants to make sure her campaign stays focussed on sepsis itself rather than becoming tied up with other infections such as meningitis.
A report into William's death released in January criticised GPs, out-of-hours services and a 111 call handler who failed to realise he had contracted the disease.
William Mead died in December 2014 after contracting sepsis as a result of a chest infection.
It found he could have been saved if a 111 call handler had realised the gravity of his illness but that a "deteriorating paediatric patient" like William was "not easily identified through the structured questioning", called NHS Pathways, used by the 111 call handlers.
GPs who treated William six times in the months before he died also failed to look out for the signs of sepsis and administer life-saving antibiotics.
In response to the report's findings Melissa Mead said GPs, parents, teachers and hospitals needed better understanding of sepsis and called for a public health campaign into the blood infection.
On the same day the government apologised to Melissa admitting the NHS had "let her, her family and William down in the worst possible way through serious failings in the care offered".