A Birmingham hospital consultant has won a year-long battle to prove his son died of heatstroke after a medical misdiagnosis.
Alex Francis was one of the nation's top Army recruits and had been due to go to Sandhurst with Prince Harry.
He collapsed and died after running a half-marathon during a gap year in West Africa.
The 23-year-old former pupil of King Edward's School, Birmingham, was thought to have contracted Lassa fever, a deadly viral illness spread by rats.
Doctors in Sierra Leone ruled out heatstroke when they diagnosed Lassa.
Alex, who was being sponsored through Sandhurst by the Parachute Regiment, died less than a day after collapsing in November 2004.
The body of the York University graduate had to be brought back to the UK in a sealed coffin because of fears of the disease spreading.
Alex's grieving parents, David and Vicki Francis, were not allowed to see their son because of that risk.
Dr Francis, a neurolo-gist, refused to believe a fit young man, with no early symptoms of a viral infection, could die so suddenly.
Dr Francis pressed for an official investigation and was finally vindicated when a coroner concluded heatstroke, not Lassa, was to blame for the tragedy.
"At the very least, I felt I owed it to Alex to get his death certificate changed. Now that I have got Alex's death sorted out, I guess I can let go."
South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh recorded a verdict last week of accidental death.
