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A Family’s Love, Loss and the Reality of Cancer, Sepsis and AMR
This story has kindly been contributed by Dr. Nveed Chaudhary, and adapted from the JCSR Foundation (The Jibraan Chaudhary Sepsis Research Foundation), which is a UK-registered charity that works to fund innovative and cutting-edge medical research to manage and treat chemotherapy-associated sepsis for patients of leukaemia and other cancers.
Jibraan Chaudhary was born in 2006, the first of our three children; he is the elder brother of our younger 14-year-old son Orhaan, and his sister, Larisaa, who is 7. After his passing, we went through the exercise of collecting all the photographs of Jibraan’s 18 years, and were reminded of his amazing experiences, his always joking and humorous outlook on life – never a straight face in a photograph. The countries we’ve lived in, the holidays we’ve had. His different interests as he grew up – loving skiing, swimming, playing ice-hockey and rugby. Of course, like any other young man, Jibraan loved playing video games and watching movies. Jibraan had experienced so much, but at the same time, had so much to offer.
At his core, Jibraan cared about everything and everyone. He always had an opinion, and regardless of who he spoke to, he always challenged the other’s thinking, sometimes to show-off his own knowledge, but mostly, to challenge so he could fully understand the logic of another’s point of view.
Jibraan had ambitions. He loved maths and physics, excelled at these subjects and was planning to start university in Sep 2024 for a degree in Theoretical Physics. A recent condolence email from one of Jibraan’s A-Levels maths teacher, indicated that sometimes the teacher had to go home and brush-up on degree-level maths, because he knew that the following day, Jibraan would challenge him beyond the syllabus on the subject matter of the lesson.
But all that changed on 6 Aug 2024, when after suffering for a few weeks from flu-like symptoms, he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. On 15th Aug 2024, the day he was to find out his A-level results and begin the next chapter of his life, he lay in day 6 of a medically-induced coma, on a ventilator, following major surgery on his lungs to remove built-up fluid, driven by a massive influx of leukaemia cells into his lungs. On that very day, we were told that due to inflammatory complications (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, ARDS), he was unlikely to survive the next 24hrs.
He did… 7 days later he was woken up and spent the following 4 days battling with Intensive Care delirium.
The sheer mental strength that Jibraan was so humble about shone through and a few days later, he was discharged from intensive care back to the cancer care ward, but only for a few days.
The leukaemia cells infiltrated the cavity around his heart, and whereas you or I would have about 30ml of fluid around our heart, in the case of Jibraan, this amassed to over 2 litres.
Another surgical procedure to insert a drain to remove the liquid, Jibraan bounced back quickly and after a few days returned to the ward, and three weeks after a second round of intensive chemotherapy, Jibraan demonstrated the tenacity and determination to pick himself back up and recovered to have a 10-day break from hospital, back at home.
He recovered well; his leukaemia was in remission. All that separated him from the life-saving stem cell transplant was a third round of chemotherapy.
On October 14th Jibraan went back to hospital for his third round and smashed his way through it. Despite the strength of the drugs, he kept positive, walking, talking and joking with everyone in his usual cheeky and sarcastic manner. The only thing stopping him from going home for another break, was waiting for his bone marrow to start making white blood cells again. After rounds 1 and 2, it took 21 days – the countdown was on again.
But this time, on day 18, he developed a strange rash on his leg. This rash grew bigger; after several days and several tests, it was diagnosed as a cellulitis (infection of the skin.) He was prescribed multiple antibiotics; however, none seemed to be alleviating the rash, in fact it got bigger. Culturing a swab of the area showed that it was a bacterial infection – self-infected from bacteria that normally lives in his gut. The bacteria gained resistance to the mainstream antibiotics he had been on for 3 months as part of his treatment but was responsive to some of the more specialised antibiotics kept in reserve by doctors. By the time he was prescribed them, the bacteria had mutated again and gained resistance to even those.
Without any of the body’s own defence mechanisms (white blood cells – neutrophils) which had been wiped out by the chemotherapy, very quickly, the infection got out of control and began to have body-wide effects – Sepsis. He was admitted to the ICU for a third time on November 10th. On the 16th of November 2024, Jibraan suffered multiple organ failure due to the sepsis, and passed away surrounded by his family.
We will never understand why Allah decided to take Jibraan so early; it is the biggest mystery of life – all we do know, is that it is part of His bigger plan. As Muslims, we firmly believe that death is simply part of an ongoing journey, and whilst he is away from us now, we will be reunited after our own deaths. The only thing that we can do now is pray for Jibraan. Pray that The Almighty forgives him of any wrongdoings he committed in his earthly life. One of the only other things we can do for Jibraan is perform good deeds on his behalf. One category of these deeds is dissemination of beneficial knowledge with everlasting effects.
Jibraan’s story painfully illustrates how antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can turn what might otherwise be a treatable infection into a life-threatening situation for cancer patients. For someone like Jibraan, whose immune system was severely weakened by chemotherapy, the effectiveness of antibiotics was critical. The resistant infection he faced left doctors with very limited options, and despite their extraordinary efforts, it ultimately claimed his life. AMR is not just a scientific or clinical challenge, it has a profoundly human impact, particularly for people fighting cancer, where every infection, every treatment, and every day matters. Protecting the effectiveness of these medicines is vital to ensure that future patients have a chance to survive and thrive, as Jibraan so desperately deserved.
Dr Nveed Chaudhary
Dr. Nveed I. Chaudhary is a British scientific and regulatory expert with more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical innovation, regulatory strategy, and public health‑related science. He holds a double honours degree in Pharmacology and Physiology from University College London and a PhD in Respiratory Molecular Medicine from the University of Southampton. Throughout his career he has worked on the development and regulatory approval of significant treatments (including a first‑in‑class lung disease drug) and on next‑generation products in the nicotine and consumer health sectors, helping bridge scientific research with real‑world impact.
Dr. Chaudhary is the Founder & Director of NexCentra Consulting Ltd, where he advises organisations on product innovation and regulatory affairs.
In 2024 he established the Jibraan Chaudhary Sepsis Research Foundation, a UK‑registered charity dedicated to funding research into sepsis associated with leukaemia and other cancers and raising awareness of this critical challenge in cancer care — work driven by his personal experience following his son’s illness.
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