Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
BETRAYED. THAT is how Mr. and Mrs. Richards (not their real names) feel about the Attorney General's decision not to accept liability for their son allegedly becoming infected with HIV while under hospital care.
The incident reportedly happened almost six years ago when their son, now 13 years old, was receiving one of over 100 blood transfusions for the treatment of haemophilia at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston. They are suing the Ministry, the hospital and the Blood Bank.
No hope
"At first, I felt left out. I feel like there was no hope for me because even now, to look at him, it's hard to believe that he is really HIV positive," she tells Outlook, recalling the first moments when she was told he had become infected.
With a glance at his son, dubbed Michael for the interview, and flanked by his wife and other relatives, Dennis Richards bitterly blasted the Ministry of Health, which the Attorney-General represents, for not accepting responsibility for what he claims is its fault.
"Dem ah shorten my son life now," he mourns.
The Ministry has said that tests carried out on donors who gave blood to the boy during that period have come back negative but health officials have also admitted that there is a 10-day window of risk in which infection can go undetected when blood donations are screened.
Health care costs
Mrs. Karen Richards says life is much harder now because her son's health care costs are eating into a budget reserved for a family of eight.
There is hardly money to meet their needs or to send their other five children to school, she remarks.
"Believe you me, we can hardly find food for Michael," sighs Mrs. Richards while her husband pipes up, "This support it ah get to me now and with the rest of the children bad, bad. The lickle work weh mi have now, wi can't manage. The $23,000 weh dem say fi anti-retroviral (HIV-fighting drugs) mi nah even a work that amount a month so how can I pay for all dem drugs."
According to Mr. Richards, Michael's illness and the lack of adequate support from the Ministry has prevented the other five children from even going to school as often as they should.
"Dem caan go school fi all ah good two week. Nuff Friday dem no go school. Dem hardly go school Friday," he comments with obvious bitterness at a press briefing held April 17, 2003 at the offices of their lawyer, Antonnette Haughton, in New Kingston.
"Wi try enuh. We all did ah do one lickle t'ing before and set up a little business fi gi my wife cause she not working through fi him illness more time and the bills dem and all dem t'ing deh, the business just go back down. Wi try wid him but right yah now, we can't go no more wid it," he laments.
In addition, Mr. Richards said his son's behaviour is becoming more erratic, especially after he developed a brain tumour.
"He talks and tells us that if he found out he really has HIV, he is going to run in a truck. He has behavioural problems. Kicking, biting, and those are the things that you have to face with (his) developing HIV. He calls us names. He does fighting, everything you can think of against us and that is because he has developed HIV and that is not fair," Mrs. Richard cries.
Not too far from her is a 24-year-old woman, called Andrea. The Attorney-General has accepted liability in her case but this does not mean much, she says, because she has nothing in writing. She has also battled thoughts of suicide since her world was knocked askew in February 2001 when she was infected while getting treatment for her low blood count at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).
Support
A major worry now is to make sure her HIV-negative four-year-old daughter has adequate financial and emotional support and that she remains around to care for the child, despite the huge help she is getting from her daughter's father.
"We actually planned to get married but because of the situation, everything just change. Sometimes I don't feel like talking about it (but) I am angry because if it wasn't for this...my life would be okay but this just changed everything. Actually, I feel like killing myself most times when I really sit and think about it..."
Her voice trails off. Tears roll slowly down Andrea's cheeks as she recalls being asked to leave her home in Manchester and the stares and whispers from her neighbours, who became aware of her HIV status after a doctor breached her confidentiality and told a relative.
"My life is mashed up because of this. Everybody just knows. They are not supportive. I never want to go out. I never want to walk on the road. I just feel embarrassed because you know that people looking at you," she whispers.
There is pain in her voice as she remembers the unkind treatment from her stepfather, in whose house she is living after begging her chief supporter, her mother, to reason with him.
"It's my stepfather's house and he wants me to be out. I had to move out and then I asked my mother to talk to him because I can't manage to pay rent on my own so definitely I need somewhere to go because definitely, I am not comfortable in that community. To me, I am not working. I really have it hard. I wouldn't want to go out there and work because everybody going to say, is she have HIV and stuff like that," Andrea remarks.
"Even now, people look at me like I did something on my own. Like I went out there and get it but they know that I am not a bad person. I want my money because my major concern is my daughter. I am worried for my daughter," she adds.
