A haemophiliac probably became infected with HIV from a clotting agent given at St James hospital, which the Blood Transfusion Service had already returned to the manufacturer. The disclosure was made at the Lindsay Tribunal during the final day of the cross-examination of Dr Emer Lawlor, BTS Deputy Medical Director, by the Haemophilia Society.
Dr Lawlor stated that she believed a clotting agent made by the firm 'Armour' and given to the haemophiliac at St James in Feb 1986 was most likely the source of his infection. She told the Tribunal that the BTS had earlier returned all of its Armour products to the company because Irish made concentrates, which were considered to be safer, were coming on stream.
However Armour re-issued the product to St James' hospital and, in the view of Dr Lawlor, it was 'most likely' to have been the source of the HIV infection. Dr Lawlor agreed with John Trainor, Senior Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society that the destruction of 20 years of BTS dispatch records had made it more difficult to establish where the Armour batch had gone to.
The Tribunal also heard extracts from two World In Action programmes, broadcast in 1975, which made serious allegations about a US blood firm and how it collected plasma to make blood products. The programmes which were entitled 'Blood Money' alleged to show how a division of the Baxter group did not apply its own donor screening procedures and increased the risks of hepatitis.
Dr Lawlor stated that the risks of infection were known by the BTS, treating doctors and users but the benefits to haemophiliacs outweighed those considerations. She told the Tribunal that she would have put her own child on concentrates despite the known risks, because of what she termed 'the horror of untreated bleeds'. Dr Lawlor will return to the stand on Monday when she will be cross-examined by another party.
