A CITY grandfather says he was told four times he was suffering from swine flu before medics eventually realised he had meningitis.

Edward Kirkman claims that despite suffering with "violent" headaches and dizziness, his GP told him on two occasions that he had swine flu.

He said that when his symptoms persisted and he went to A and E, once in an ambulance, he was told the same thing.

It was not until he collapsed at home, knocking himself out, that medics diagnosed the potentially fatal brain condition which left him in hospital for two weeks.

The 59-year-old, of Chaddesden said: "If it wasn't for the persistence of my wife, who knows what would have happened? I might not be here now.

"I have no complaints with the treatment I eventually received from the nursing staff, but you can't get there until you get past the doctors in A and E."

Mr Kirkman, of Oakleigh Avenue, said that when he first started feeling ill his wife called his GP at Park Medical Practice in Chaddesden, who said it sounded like swine flu.

When his symptoms persisted, Mr Kirkman was told to go in and see his doctor, who again said it was probably swine flu. Three days later Mr Kirkman, a semi-retired engineer, collapsed at his home and his son, Peter, called for an ambulance.

Mr Kirkman said he was taken to A and E, where doctors checked him over, carried out blood tests and took his blood pressure before telling him to go home to bed and take pain-killers.

He says he then collapsed several more times before his worried wife Sue drove him back to A and E.

He said that he had more tests and was again told it was swine flu and that he should go home and rest.

Mr Kirkman, who has three grandchildren, claims he even collapsed on the way out of A and E, and his wife put him in a wheelchair and took him back inside, only for him to be told to go home to bed.

The following day Mr Kirkman's symptoms took a turn for the worse and he collapsed at home, hitting his head and knocking himself out.

"My wife called the ambulance again, they checked me over and took me back to A and E where I was checked over again and then admitted to the assessment ward for further tests," he said.

He said a sample of spinal fluid was taken, and his condition was then found to be meningitis, not swine flu, as his wife "had maintained was the case since the start".

Mr Kirkman then spent 16 days in hospital, before he was eventually allowed back home.

"There are no complaints whatsoever with regard to the treatment I eventually received on the ward," he said.

"The doctors and nursers there were great. I have not got a problem with my GP, either. I know swine flu is difficult to diagnose.

"It is just the doctors on A and E, they should have realised how ill I was. I don't want anyone else to be misdiagnosed like this, they might not be so lucky.

"I am not looking for any compensation, I just want to make sure this does not happen again."

Mr Kirkman has since raised his concerns with the Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS) at the hospital.

On Monday, the Derby Telegraph reported how two senior Derbyshire doctors feared there may be more cases of meningitis or pneumonia being mistaken for swine flu, as symptoms are similar.

In July, the virus was wrongly diagnosed in Gemma Drury, 17, of Brimington, Chesterfield, who in fact had meningitis. She later made a full recovery.

And there was a case of pneumonia mistaken for swine flu in a teenager in North Derbyshire during the summer.

Cathy Bratt, deputy director of nursing at Derby's hospitals, said: "This case has been reviewed by one of our senior consultants in A and E and what's very clear is that staff followed a set of processes from the Health Protection Agency to assess a patient with these symptoms.

"Large numbers of patients go to A and E and GP surgeries everyday with infection-related symptoms which are all very similar during the early stages of infection and the vast majority are non-serious.

"It will be investigated further but the review by the senior consultant suggests that, if the patient presented again with these symptoms, we would follow the same route of care.

"Meningitis is a very rare illness and often these infections start very much the same as flu or the common cold."

The Derby Telegraph contacted Park Medical Practice, but it did not wish to comment.