The lawyer who represented families of two Bristol teenagers who lost their lives to meningitis has welcomed the release of a Government report aimed at improving awareness and early diagnosis.

The report from the Meningococcal Working Group sets our 12 recommendations aimed at organisations and bodies that have a role to play in improving awareness and early diagnosis of sepsis and meningococcal disease. The report has been sent to these organisations and they have been asked to set out how they plan to respond by the end of September 2018.

Kerry Fifield, a partner at Clarke Willmott, who has been acting for the families of Isabel Gentry and George Zographou following their deaths from meningitis, said:

“The Working group examined three cases, including those of Izzy and George, which showed the importance of raising awareness and ensuring early diagnosis and treatment of meningococcal disease under the umbrella of the wider work on sepsis and recognising the sick or deteriorating child.

“The Meningococcal Working Group Report can hopefully raise further awareness where there are gaps in training for medical professionals and also improve knowledge in relation to signs and symptoms for those who are most at risk."

Ms Fifield, a member of the Medical Negligence team at Clarke Willmott, added:

“The Clarke Willmott Medical Negligence team has considerable experience of acting for families where loved ones have been affected by the meningitis disease as a result of our close working relationship with Meningitis Research Foundation.

“Sadly, we are all too often dealing with tragic deaths and life-changing physical damage, which could often have been prevented by improvements in the early diagnosis and treatment of meningitis.”

Izzy, a pupil at St Brendan’s College, was aged 16 when she died of meningitis in May 2016. George, who was also a pupil at St Brendan’s College, was aged 18 when he died in August 2017 after being taken ill at the Boardmasters Festival.

Clarke Willmott LLP is a national law firm with seven offices across the country, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton and Taunton.

For more information visit www.clarkewillmott.com