Medicine: Spain's Lethal Cooking Oil

Mysterious contaminant has killed 132, sickened some 13,000

The first doctor to see little Fredy Garcia was the family pediatrician in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon. Fredy was suffering from a low-grade fever that occasionally returned to normal; the doctor diagnosed simple laryngitis and sent the six-year-old home to take antibiotics.

Three days later, Fredy's mother Antonia was running a slight fever too. She took her son to the Hospital Clinico in Madrid's University City, and physicians there promptly admitted both mother and child. Nearly two weeks later, Fredy's mother left the hospital completely cured,...