Still Clapping, Are We?

This time of year is always difficult for those who have lost a loved one, but for Melissa Mead and her husband Paul it is agonisingly so. For it was in December 2014, with Christmas just days away, that their one-year-old son William – their firstborn and longed-for baby – died from sepsis after a catalogue of errors, misdiagnoses and missed opportunities to save him.

Yes, it's that sainted NHS again... 

With an instinct any mother would recognise, Melissa had known something was wrong for weeks, only for her concerns to be dismissed time and again by both doctors and 111 operators.

Well, of course! I mean, 'mum knows best' is just a slogan, isn't it? 

In 2016, an NHS England report into the circumstances of William's death concluded that there had been sixteen failings in his care and four missed opportunities to save his life. In the wake of this devastating verdict, Melissa and Paul, along with the UK Sepsis Trust, have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of the life-threatening condition and the need to act quickly, particularly in children. Yet as the Mail reveals today, a report by the National Child Mortality Database reveals that of the 1,507 infection-related child deaths recorded over a three-year period to the end of March 2022, the clinical signs of sepsis were present in 701.

With the money that gets poured into the NHS, it should be a world leader. Yet so often, we learn it's not much better than a Third World health service.  

Surely It's Time There Was Some Redress For This?

A violent thug who attacked a mum and her young son left her home "looking like a bloodbath". 

The 26-year-old Welshman already had a history of violence against women. But the electrician was free to carry out the savage Teesside assault after being spared jail last year despite punching his girlfriend so hard she lost her sense of smell and taste.

Yes, absolutely, this woman didn't do any due diligence before shacking up with the brute and putting herself and her son in danger, but...shouldn't the previous judge also bear some responsibility? 

Shouldn't there be some consequences for lenient sentencing and the resulting fallout?

The court heard that the mother is planning to move away from the area, so she is safe when Dos Santos is released from prison.

Should he ever be? 

Judge Watson jailed Dos Santos for six years and four months and made him the subject of a restraining order prohibiting him from going near the family again.

So, he'll just target another family. It seems there's no shortage of victims, thanks to women with low standards, and of course, thanks to the criminal justice system...