Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
Dr. Lundie Richards (left) Director, National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) in discussion with Dr. Jacqueline Gernay, health system development adviser, Pan-American Health Organisation about a campaign poster. They were attending the World Blood Donor Day awards ceremony at the Ministry of Health in downtown Kingston, last month. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer
FOLLOWING A report on the number of lawsuits for negligence facing some
medical institutions over the last 13 years, a further probe by The Sunday Gleaner now identifies at least 28 cases. This is four more than reported last week.
There were at least seven publicised cases that were not reported in government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act.
Many of those unmentioned cases were against the National Blood Transfusion Service (Blood Bank). The Sunday Gleaner has since learnt that there have been at least four other cases against the institution where four persons contracted HIV through blood transfusions. This should bring the total number of people who have contracted HIV through blood transfusions between 1997 and 2005 to seven, and the total number of suits for negligence against the Blood Bank to eight.
NEWLY-UNCOVERED CASES
Among the newly-uncovered cases, is one filed in 2001, where a jaundiced baby girl contracted HIV through a blood transfusion while being treated at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). The family of the child sued and was awarded over $15 million after the Government accepted liability.
There was another successful case in which a complainant was awarded $21 million in damages, a well-known lawyer confirmed, and also another case of a teenage boy who contracted HIV and a blood infection after he received a blood transfusion while being treated in hospital. But the latter case is still before the court.
There are other cases of people receiving tainted blood, the attorney confirmed, but the number of cases could not be specified.
Executive director of the Blood Bank, Dr. Lundie Richards, in an earlier interview with Sunday Gleaner, said he knew only of two cases against the Blood Bank for negligence. In fact, he said he was not aware of a case occurring in the last five years. However, our probe showed that three of the cases of blood transfusions gone bad had occurred between 2000 and 2005. In the interview, Dr. Richards said it was not fair to blame the Blood Bank for incidents of HIV infection that occurred during transfusions due to the 28-day HIV window period. During that period, he explained, it is very difficult to detect HIV in the blood. An attempt to get further comments from Dr. Richards following our discovery of more cases was unsuccessful.
But receiving contaminated blood has not been the only case against the Blood Bank. In 2003, an expectant mother was diagnosed HIV-positive when she visited the UHWI for antenatal tests. However, she subsequently gave birth to a healthy baby. Some months after the diagnosis, a doctor at the hospital grew suspicious when he saw the results. He advised Ms. Morgan to get an independent test. She did so and the result was negative.
Her common-law husband joined her in a suit seeking damages for negligence. The couple said they were emotionally traumatised by the misdiagnosis and it put a serious strain on their relationship. The woman was even sent to an
AIDS support group after the
misdiagnosis. Attorneys representing the Government requested another test when she took her case to court. Her blood was drawn in the presence of her lawyer and lawyers representing the Government. The result was negative. The couple has since accused the Ministry of Health of failure to properly collect, handle or store blood serum and plasma and has sued for a substantial sum of money.
Aside from the former cases, there have been some other serious accusations of negligence levelled against some hospitals in the Southern Regional Health Authority division. One of the best-known cases is the Baby Pansy case against Government.
In 2002, a baby girl born to Pansy Campbell in the Lionel Town Hospital in Vere, Clarendon, was said to have developed a respiratory illness and was transferred to the Mandeville, Hospital in Manchester. But when Ms. Campbell went to visit her child in Mandeville, she was told her daughter had died. When DNA samples were taken and tested from five children who died at the hospital during September 2002, the same period during which hospital officials claimed Baby Pansy died, none were proven to be her. The child was never found but the attorney-general filed a motion in 2003 declaring the child dead. The family subsequently sought compensation from Government, but this has been slow in coming. In February this year, lawyers representing Pansy Campbell threatened to take the case to the Supreme Court if Government failed to offer improved compensation to the family.
There was also another situation this year involving Lionel Town Hospital. This time, one-year-old Raje Russell lost a finger after he was admitted to the hospital for gastroenteritis. His parents, Roderick Russell and Jennifer Harvey, visited the hospital every day for three days after he was admitted and their child's hand was fine. On the fourth day, Ms. Harvey noticed one of her son's hands was wrapped in a bandage. The couple was told that one of his fingers had been severed and another fractured while in a crib in which he had been placed. Three days later, doctors tried to reattach little Raje's finger but they failed. The couple sought legal counsel.
SLOW ACCESS TO MEDICAL
NEGLIGENCE CASE FILES
In November last year, this reporter made a request for reports of medical malpractice in all major hospitals on the island since 1997 under the Access to Information Act. Access was denied on the first attempt. An internal review was conducted and after several months of waiting for the report to be compiled, access was granted.
According to the Government documents, only one case was settled in 1993, with the remaining 16 still before the court. Nearly half of them were filed in 2004.
