A DOCTOR who told a couple that their dead son's heart condition had been misdiagnosed said last night that he himself had been misled when he examined the boy.
Charles Comrie was thought to have been the victim of an epileptic seizure when he died at Falkirk Royal Infirmary last October.
But Dr Robert McWilliam, a consultant neurologist at Yorkhill Hospital, saw Charles in 1993, when he worked at Falkirk Royal, and did not suspect the heart condition.
Since then he has been carrying out a research review and identified Charles's problem as Long QT Syndrome, a form of heart arrhythmia which leads to fainting, mimicking some forms of childhood epilepsy.
His admission that he himself had overlooked the condition at the time followed threats by Charles's parents, Chick and Janet, to sue the hospital for negligence. They are also demanding a fatal accident inquiry.
But Dr McWilliam said last night that Charles's death had not been due to any lapse of care. He said: ''There was an EEG (brain activity) reading consistent with epileptic activity common to 3% of the population. That gave the doctors a ready explanation for Charles's fainting fits.
''There was an ECG (heart activity) scan taken as well, but that is done routinely in conjunction with the EEG. Long QT is not obvious unless you are looking for it in detail, and we didn't suspect it.
''I think that would have been the case in practically any EEG department in the country. Since the weekend, I have phoned round 10 different hospitals in England and Wales, and not one of them regularly checks ECGs for Long QT.
''I have been retrospectively reviewing ECGs from a series of suspected epilepsy cases, and that is how I came across Charles's case.
''That was one out of 1500 cases, so it is pretty rare.''
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