NHS Gloucestershire is investigating a complaint from a young couple whose first child died after doctors at a local GP surgery were unavailable to see the baby boy, who was critically ill with meningitis.

The Daily Mail reports that Lee Freeman and Shaunna Bent ‘sprinted’ more than a mile from their home in Littledean, Gloucester to the local Dockham Road Surgery in Cinderford with their five-month-old son in their arms, after he was taken ill overnight on 25 January and began showing the classic signs of the disease.

The couple were told that no doctor was available to see baby Jaydon and they were asked to leave their phone number so that someone could call them back.

The couple dialled 999 for an ambulance outside the surgery – and a patient who was waiting to see a doctor came out to see if they were all right. The same patient then ran back into the surgery and fetched a doctor.

The couple and their baby were taken into a consulting room to wait for the ambulance.

The baby was taken to hospital, but was slipping in and out of consciousness in the ambulance and died a few hours later from meningococcal septicaemia, after doctors advised the couple to let their son go.

Lee Freeman and Shaunna Bent are now demanding to know why no doctor was available to see their baby at the Dockham Road Surgery.

Ms Bent, 19, said:

'At about 10.30am, we went to the surgery with Jaydon and the receptionist told us that there were no doctors available at that time and asked us to leave our phone number.

'We walked outside the surgery and called an ambulance, but a patient who had been in the waiting room followed us out to see if we were OK.

'When she saw what was happening, she ran back in and then a doctor came out. We went into a room in the surgery together and then the ambulance arrived.'

Ms Bent added that her son was ‘really strong and kept fighting’ – but in the end medical staff told the couple it was ‘best to let him go’.

Lead doctor at the Dockham Road Surgery, Dr Simon Silver, said:

‘Meningococcal septicaemia is an absolutely devastating illness. Prompt treatment, as in this case, can sometimes be powerless.

‘This must surely turn the parents' life upside down and we hope they do not suffer too much in their grief. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to them.’

A spokesman for NHS Gloucester said:

‘A child's death is always a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the family concerned. We recognise that this must be an extremely distressing time for them.

‘We have a robust complaints process in place and we would urge the family to make contact with us so we can look in to the individual circumstances of this case.’

Pending the investigation, both Dockham Road Surgery and NHS Lothian have refused to give more information about what prompted a doctor to run outside to the couple and their baby as they waited for the ambulance.

Ms Bent said about her son:

‘I was so chuffed when he was born. He was a lovely, bubbly baby who was always laughing. He was so happy that he used to wake up smiling.’

The couple say they are so devastated by Jaydon’s death that they are unable to return to the home where they spent their first Christmas with their baby son.

Jaydon’s funeral took place on Saturday (13/02/10). The couple are now planning to lodge a formal complaint about the circumstances of his care.

Mr Freeman said:

'The surgery rang us back while we were in hospital to ask how he was getting on and I just said he'd passed away and put the phone down. I did not know what to say to them.

‘We want people to know what happened to us so it does not happen again.’

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