It has been suggested that the Blood Transfusion Service has 'happy' to leave a clotting agent in hospitals which had not been tested for HIV or undergone a viral inactivation process. The matter was raised at the Lindsay Tribunal today during the testimony of John Cann, a former Chief Technical Officer at Pelican House.
Much of the focus of today's evidence was on the Factor 9 clotting agent which was made by Pelican House and is used by a minority of haemophiliacs. Last Friday, John Cann told the Tribunal that he recalled 'quite definitely' a decision in January 1986 to withdraw all Factor 9 which had not been heat treated to eliminate HIV. The statement was dramatic because documentation showed that a re-call of non-heated treated factor 9 only took place five months later.
Today under cross-examination by Charles Meenan, Senior Counsel, Mr Cann agreed that he was 'seeing too much into a document' and that there had not been a re-call decided in January. Following that testimony, Mr Cann was further pressed by Gerry Durcan, Senior Counsel for the Tribunal. Mr Durcan said that the evidence now suggested that Pelican House was happy to leave Factor 9 on hospital shelves which had not either been heat-treated or made from blood tested for HIV.
The Tribunal has already heard that seven haemophiliacs contracted HIV from using the Factor 9 product - five of whom have died.
