Stechford man's malaria death: Doctors failed to heed patient's concerns, inquest told

Feb 3 2009 by Paul Suart, Birmingham Mail

A BIRMINGHAM council worker’s life could have been saved had doctors acted appropriately and thoroughly, an inquest heard.

Dr Christopher Ellis, a senior physician at Heartlands Hospital, told deputy coroner Christopher Ball how Richard Clayton, 45, of Whittington Oval, Stechford, could have made a full recovery had medical staff listened to his concerns at having contracted malaria while on holiday and offered him a blood test.

But the former street cleaner was not given a blood test until the evening of January 2, 2008, four days after first contacting Heartlands and its Badger out-of-hours emergency service. He died at Heartlands on January 29, 2008.

Mr Clayton, who was married to Linda to whose two sons from a previous marriage he had become a father figure, had been suffering headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and general lethargy since Christmas Day.

The symptoms mirrored those shown by his sister-in-law when she caught the disease.

During consultations with the hospital and numerous GPs, in which Mr Clayton had revealed his concerns about malaria, having been bitten on the neck by a mosquito while on a trip to Gambia, he was repeatedly diagnosed as having food poisoning and crucially not given the test.

The test could have detected the disease before it affected his vital organs and contributed to his death.

At the inquest into Mr Clayton’s death yesterday, Dr Ellis said: “Almost certainly if the test had been carried out on the 29th it would have altered the outcome.”

The coroner recorded a narrative verdict that Mr Clayton contracted malaria which was not diagnosed and led to multiple organ failure.