21-07-2025
Father died of meningitis after being misdiagnosed 11 times
A coroner later confirmed the condition was extremely rare and said a combination of its rarity and 'medical confirmation bias' contributed to delays.
He ruled that Qinghu's lumbar puncture - the test that confirmed the diagnosis - was only performed on his 12th medical visit.
By then, he had already suffered brain swelling and required emergency surgery at the Royal London Hospital.
He never fully recovered and died from complications in August 2024, after more than ten operations and eight months in a coma.
Yujiao said: 'At the beginning, we trusted the doctors.
'My son was born in that hospital (Chelsea and Westminster Hospital). But no matter how much we said the treatment wasn't working, they kept insisting it was just a different type of migraine.'
Repeated scans failed to detect any brain abnormalities. When Qinghu collapsed at home multiple times, Yujiao called 999 but each time she says paramedics saw his NHS file and followed the migraine diagnosis, sending him home.
In desperation, they consulted a private neurologist who suspected meningitis and urged a lumbar puncture. Yujiao brought this diagnosis back to NHS doctors, but she says they refused to believe the private opinion.
She said: 'Even after we had another expert tell them it could be meningitis, they said it was still just a migraine. 'That made everything harder. When the ambulance came, they saw a note in the system about the private opinion and still didn't act.'
On the fifth collapse, the paramedic refused to take Qinghu back to hospital, saying he had already been discharged multiple times. Instead, they arranged a video consultation. A hospital doctor saw his face via video call and immediately ordered an ambulance.
That night, a CT scan revealed dangerously high brain pressure. A lumbar puncture was finally performed and confirmed cryptococcal meningitis - a diagnosis that came more than a month after symptoms began.
Qinghu was rushed into intensive care and underwent multiple brain surgeries. In December 2023, during junior doctor strikes, he deteriorated again and began vomiting and passing blood.
Yujiao says no doctor came to see him and later that night, his heart stopped.
Qinghu was resuscitated three times but never regained full consciousness. He briefly woke for three weeks, able to squeeze Yujiao's hand and kiss her, before slipping back into a coma and passing away in August 2024.
At the same time, Yujiao's toddler son was diagnosed with a tumour and had to undergo two major operations.
