Boy HIV+ after blood transfusion
2003-03-04 22:04
Antoinette Pienaar
Johannesburg - The parents of a 13-year-old boy from Mpumalanga, who tested HIV-positive after a blood transfusion at Pretoria Academic Hospital, are seeking legal advice because the hospital and transfusion service are refusing to pay for
antiretrovirals.
Johan Stoop, 13, from Bethal underwent a blood transfusion after a leg operation in October last year.
The South African Blood Transfusion Service found out in January that the donor was HIV-positive and informed the hospital.
Johan's blood was tested and his mother, Francis, 39, was told on Monday that her child is HIV-positive.
Professor Barry Lindeque, an orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, personally paid for Johan's first course of
antiretrovirals on the same day. The treatment costs about R900 per month.
Negligence
"The transfusion service first wants to do DNA testing to determine whether the virus Johan contracted came from their donor. The hospital claims that it did not issue the blood," Lindeque said.
"The ball is being tossed around. I decided we had to start on the treatment immediately and sort out the paperwork later."
He has since suggested that the Stoop family seek legal advice because the case is not an obvious negligence case.
"Nobody really made a mistake, because the blood went through all the tests at the blood bank."
The donor was probably in the window period of infection when he donated blood last year. This means that the two different tests, ordinarily performed on the blood, did not pick up the virus or the anti-bodies.
Small income
Lindeque said this was the third case in the orthopaedic field that he has heard about.
Dr Robert Crookes, medical director of the interior region of the South African Blood Transfusion Service, said there were five cases of HIV infection through donor blood in his region between 1997 and 2002.
"The blood service does everything in its power to prevent people from being infected. We cannot be held responsible to pay for someone's antiretroviral treatment."
The Stoop family has a very small income and cannot afford to pay for the antiretrovirals.
Johan was smiling on Tuesday. His mother said he does not yet understand the implications of an HIV infection.
"I cannot explain it to him because I don't understand either.
We only know what we have seen on television.
The doctor gave me gloves and said I should not touch the blood if Johan is injured."
- Beeld