Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The mother of a teenager who died two years after he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and HIV has lost her negligence suit against the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the National Blood Transfusion Service.

Mr. Justice Roy Jones, after hearing evidence and legal submissions in the matter, held yesterday that the Blood Bank and the hospital did not breach their duty of supplying safe blood to patients in general and to the deceased in particular.

Dothlyn Holness, mother of 16-year-old Roan Chin Hing,had brought the suit in the Supreme Court.

She was seeking an award of $30 million to $40 million for pain and suffering and loss of life.

Holness said her son was diagnosed with haemophilia at nine months and required periodic blood transfusions for the rest of his life. She alleged that her son contracted HIV from a blood transfusion in March 2001 at the UHWI. She said her son was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and HIV on April 8, 2001. He died in September 2003 at age 16.

Could not be proven

Attorneys-at-law Steve Shelton and Malaica Wong, of the firm Myers Fletcher and Gordon, strongly contested the suit on behalf of the hospital. They brought evidence to show that the claimant could not prove that her son contracted HIV from the March 2003 transfusion.

Lawyers representing the hospital and the Blood Bank, which was represented by attorney-at-law Amina Maknoon, from the Attorney-General's Department, argued that the teenager must have contracted HIV from a transfusion before March 2001 or through some other contact.

The judge found that the claimant had failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that the deceased had contracted HIV as a result of that transfusion, and further failed to prove that he died as a result of HIV-related illnesses.

It was also the judge's finding that the screening process at the Blood Bank was reasonable and adequate to reduce or eliminate the risk of HIV and hepatitis contaminating blood.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com