The National Health Service wrongly diagnosed a boy with a rare form of diabetes as having swine flu . The eight-year old schoolboy, who died at the height of the swine flu outbreak last year, had his diabetes mistaken for the H1N1 virus.
According to diabetes news, Louis Austin started to experience bad headaches and chronic fatigue last July. After some time he became so ill he could not even stand, and his mother dialled 999.
However, the staff classed the case as non-emergency and refused to send an ambulance. Louis was instead diagnosed with swine flu and prescribed Tamiflu. Joanne Kearsley, the coroner, reportedly commented:
"This call should never have been sent to an out-of-hours service. It is abundantly clear they failed to ascertain answers to crucial questions. The call should have led to urgent medical intervention."
Boy with diabetes died following NHS swine flu diagnosis
Fri, 23 Apr 2010
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