Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

RICHARD FACEY ... Contracted HIV through blood transfusion.

THE COUNTRY'S health sector has been slapped with at least 24 lawsuits for negligence over the last 13 years, Sunday Gleaner investigations have uncovered.

Documents obtained from the Ministry of Health under the Access to Information Act disclose there have been only 17 lawsuits against Government for negligence since 1993. However, the documents were incomplete and failed to acknowledge at least seven cases brought to public attention. In many of those not-monitored suits, the Blood Bank and Bustamante Hospital for Children have figured prominently.

SIMILAR CASES

Among those cases was a $29 million suit filed by attorneys representing Richard Facey, a 13-year-old haemophiliac, against the Bustamante Hospital for Children, the Blood Bank and Ministry of Health. This is after Facey contracted HIV through a blood transfusion in 1997 while being treated in hospital.

Government attorneys denied the the institutions were responsible and claimed proper medicinal procedures were followed when Facey received blood from the Blood Bank in 1997.

They argued that no other person was infected through blood transfusions during the period the complainant received blood. They also argued that the complainant should receive no more than $10 million in damages.

Closing arguments were heard in the Supreme Court on February 17 and lawyers now await the decision of Justice Horace Marsh.

However, Facey will never benefit from any compensation if his lawyers are successful. He died in February this year after several years of battling his illnesses.

A number of cases similar to Facey's have shown up against the Blood Bank over the years.

Subsequent to Facey's case in 1997, a 23-year-old woman also contracted HIV through a blood transfusion at the Kingston Public Hospital.

She was being treated for a case of low blood count. Her lawyers filed a suit against the hospital and the Blood Bank, but she died a few years later before she received any compensation. Her lawyers are still negotiating compensation for her family.

Later in May 2002, a 10-year-old boy, also received contaminated blood through a blood transfusion while at Bustamante Hospital for Children. He was also a haemophiliac. Like others before him, his lawyers filed a suit against the hospital and the Blood Bank for negligence.

He was, however, awarded $10 million in damages last year, the highest sum awarded for negligence to date. It is not clear any money has been paid out to the complainant yet as his lawyers could not be contacted.

In 2004, another 14-year-old boy contracted HIV through contaminated blood, documents from the Ministry of Health showed. Like most others, his case is still before the court. He also died before he could receive compensation.

Executive Director of the Blood Bank, Dr. Lundie Richards, while claiming to only have knowledge of only two of the cases, said it was not uncommon for people to pick up infections during blood transfusions, including HIV.

"The more often one receives a blood product, the more likely they are to pick up some form of blood born disease or infection," he said.

Hence a haemophiliac, like Richard, who consistently bleeds has a greater chance of contracting a blood infection like HIV because they undergo multiple transfusions Dr. Richards said.

WINDOW PERIOD

He explained that although the Blood Bank uses the world standard elisa enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method (Elisa in short) to test for HIV in blood, the virus cannot be detected during the window period, which is approximately 28 days.

The window period is that time frame after a person becomes infected when HIV is difficult to detect.

He said because of the existence of the window period, the Blood Bank should not be blamed when someone contracts an infection like HIV through a transfusion, unless there was a laboratory error, and there have not been many. He said since the Blood Bank's establishment 20 years ago, there has only been one laboratory error.

The case he referred to, however, was not the case of the 10 year-old boy who contracted HIV in 2002 who was subsequently awarded $10 million.

"Why would you want to blame the Blood Bank? The Blood Bank is testing the blood but there are things beyond the Blood Bank's control. If something (occurs ) within a window period there is absolutely nothing you can do about it anywhere in the world," Dr. Richards said.