The mother of three boys who all have Hepatitis-C has told the Lindsay Tribunal that she was not told about her sons' infections until five years after they were diagnosed. All three children appear to have been infected by the same batch of blood clotting agent. Using the pseudonym "Felicity", their mother said that, if she had known about her first child's infection, she could have stopped that batch from being used by the hospital on her other two children.
Counsel for the Haemophilia Society were told by "Felicity" that she believed a batch of Factor 9 blood clotting agent, produced by the Blood Transfusion Service Board, infected her three boys. "Felicity" said that she subsequently established that her sons had been diagnosed by the National Children's Hospital as having Hepatitis C at different times in one year. She said that, had known about her first child's infection, she could have stopped batch 9885 from being used on her other two children. "Felicity" testified that her three sons, aged between twelve and fifteen, say that they wish they had cancer as then they could tell their friends. She said, "If you tell them about Hepatitic C, they won't be your friends anymore." Counsel for the National Children's Hospital, formally at Harcourt St, Mel Crystal, issued an apology that he hoped would go some way towards easing the pain for what he termed a lapse of communication.
Earlier, the son-in-law of a man who died after being infected by contaminated blood products spoke of the trauma of collecting his body from the mortuary at St James's Hospital. Using the pseudonym "Larry", he said that the hospital did not tell him to expect security guards when he came to collect "Neil's" body. "Neil's" death certificate said that he had died from Hepatitis, but the papers said that it was an AIDS related illness.
Earlier, the tribunal heard how concerns about the safety of blood products imported from the United States were raised in 1982. One woman said that she wanted to know why they were still in use here two years, after it had been banned in the US.
