Parents' instinct needs to be part of medical diagnosis, says report into boy's sepsis death

A report on the death of a six-year-old Rotherham boy after being sent home from A&E has called for national guidance to take into account parents' intuition that "something feels very wrong" about their child.

- Robyn Vinter

Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died of pneumonia and sepsis at Sheffield children's hospital on 23 November 2022, almost a week after his parents raised concerns that he was unwell.

He was seen by numerous clinicians who failed to listen to the concerns of his mother, Soniya Ahmed, that something was seriously wrong with Yusuf, instead relying solely on data that suggested he was not seriously ill.

The independent patient safety investigation report, commissioned by NHS England in response to significant concerns raised by Yusuf's family, recommended that caregivers' concerns be taken more seriously when assessing children.

The report asked healthcare organisations to consider treating parental intuition as a "legitimate and vital form of evidence" and asked: "What becomes possible when the instinct of a mother is given the same attention as a monitor reading?"