Patient awarded damages for delayed diagnosis during HIV treatment

The High Court awarded €26,000 to a patient for the delayed diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which should have been suspected and treated with empirical AmBisome between March 10-14, 2014. The patient, an HIV-positive individual from Spain, was admitted to the hospital with symptoms consistent with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and was treated under the HLH protocol. Despite a lack of substantial improvement and the exclusion of herpes virus type 8 (HHV-8) as a trigger, the hospital failed to consider VL in the differential diagnosis until the patient's transfer to a Spanish hospital, where VL was promptly diagnosed and treated. The court found that earlier suspicion and treatment of VL would have led to symptom improvement within a week and substantial recovery within two weeks, sparing the patient approximately three weeks of severe illness and hospitalisation.