A HOSPITAL in Valencia is under scrutiny for diagnosing a patient with malaria as having the 'flu, despite his yellow complexion and his having told doctors about his regular trips to Africa.
The judge handling the case believes there could be a case for criminal proceedings.
According to the patient, he went to A&E at the private hospital - which he uses through his health insurance - in early March after several days of high fever.
He told the doctor he travelled to Africa regularly and asked for a malaria test.
Instead, he was given a routine blood test and, after the results came back, the GP told him he did not have malaria, diagnosed him with influenza and prescribed 'paracetamol and rest at home'.
But three days later, he returned to A&E as his fever had not subsided and he had developed other symptoms including vomiting, dehydration and a yellow tinge to his skin.
His family members who accompanied him reiterated that he regularly travelled to Africa and kept asking for a malaria test, but this was repeatedly denied.
The following day, another doctor diagnosed him with jaundice and, after continual persistence and complaints from his family, reluctantly agreed to the malaria test.
It took another day to get the results, by which time - day six - the patient's condition was worsening.
His family contacted the ward sister, but she told them there were 'no doctors working for his insurance company at the hospital at present', so they were 'unable to attend to him'.
The medication he had been given was having no effect, so the family called for a doctor yet again in the evening.
This doctor turned out to have been the first one who saw him in A&E and who, reading the patient's results, realised he had made a mistake and had him admitted to intensive car.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com