Ryan’s rule: the Australian right to a second medical opinion that may soon be saving lives in England

Brittany McDaniel believes her son Weston would not be alive if she and his father had not invoked Ryan’s rule at a hospital in Queensland. A paediatric doctor instantly recognised a staphylococcus infection. Photograph: Dan Peled/The Guardian

Six-month-old Weston was fast succumbing to infection in a hospital waiting room when his parents saw a poster that they have no doubt saved his life. For several days his mother, Brittany McDaniel, and father, Zack Tyndall, had been sent home or made to wait after being told the rash devouring his face was an allergic reaction or a bad case of eczema.

Now, as his eyes rolled back into his head, Weston’s parents couldn’t wait any longer.