Fatal Case of Malaria Mistaken for Touch of Flu

In April, 1988, Peter Oggeri went to his Maxicare doctor feeling lousy, with chills, fever, headache and malaise. He and his wife had just returned from a trip to Africa, he said. Might it be malaria?

But the Simi Valley man was assured he only had the flu, an assertion Oggeri’s doctors continued to make even as his condition worsened.

A week later, Oggeri, 52, was rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he died of malaria before hospital officials could find the necessary drugs to treat him.

“Ironically, I had the medication at home, and it probably would have saved my husband’s life. But we didn’t give it to him because the doctor said it was just the flu,” said Oggeri’s widow, Angie, referring to the anti-malaria medication the couple was given by another doctor before their trip to Africa.

In an out-of-court settlement, Angie Oggeri and the couple’s daughters, Michelle and Stephanie, last week received $650,000 from Hawthorne Community Medical Group; its physicians, Bruce Teget, Eugene Palliccia and Ronald Galbreath; and Hawthorne Tower Medical Laboratory.

Still pending is a claim against Northridge Hospital Medical Center, whose attorneys said they intend to go to trial. Also named in the suit was Maxicare, which contracted with the Hawthorne group for medical services but has since filed for bankruptcy.

Had Peter Oggeri lived, the couple would have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in September, said Angie Oggeri, 47, a secretary for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

She was wakened by a phone call from the hospital telling her that her husband was dead.

“I thought I was dreaming. I must be dreaming,” she said. “He had never been sick a day in his life. But it was no dream.”

One of the oldest known diseases, malaria is transmitted by the anopheles mosquito. “If diagnosed promptly, malaria is 100% curable, no problem,” said Pomona attorney Arthur J. Jaffee, who represented Oggeri. “In this case, they kept missing the diagnosis.”

Death from malaria is rare in this country, health officials said. The disease has been eradicated in the United states but about 5 million Americans like the Oggeris travel to malaria-infested areas each year, said Dr. Kenneth Warren, director of the health science division of the Rockefeller Foundation, which is helping to pay for research that may lead to a vaccine against malaria. About five to 10 Americans die each year from the disease, Warren said.

In March, 1988, the Oggeris, taking advantage of cheap travel offered because of Peter’s job as a mechanic for Flying Tiger Line, took a nine-day safari through numerous Kenyan wildlife parks.

“Ironically, it was one of the best vacations we’d ever had,” said Angie Oggeri. “He never even knew he had been bitten by a mosquito.”

Peter Oggeri became ill two weeks after his return and went to Palliccia, who sent him home with flu medications. Two days later, when Oggeri grew worse, Palliccia ordered a blood test, which revealed malaria, but it apparently was not shown to the doctor or was ignored, Jaffee said.

As Oggeri’s condition continued to deteriorate, Angie Oggeri called the medical group and was told by Teget that Oggeri should simply wait for his flu to subside, Jaffee said.

“I thought, ‘I’m not a doctor, what do I know,’ ” Angie Oggeri said. “Every day he’d just get progressively worse until finally I took him to Northridge Hospital. He couldn’t stand up, couldn’t talk, couldn’t eat.”

At the hospital, Galbreath ordered a blood test for malaria and went home, directing that Oggeri be admitted and given anti-malaria medication. However, the lawsuit alleges, employees waited several hours to call Galbreath and tell him they did not have the drugs. Oggeri died a few hours later.

Palliccia and Teget could not be reached for comment. Brian W. Birnie, Galbreath’s attorney, denied that his client did anything wrong.

Graciela Freixes, an attorney for the hospital, said Oggeri had so many malarial parasites in his bloodstream by the time he arrived at the hospital that he would not have lived even had he been given the medication. She said it was not ordered on a rush basis.

Angie Oggeri said she has been in counseling since her husband’s death. “It gets better, and then you have your days something reminds you about things,” she said. “I depended on him a lot. Now, here I am all by myself.”