The Lindsay Tribunal has heard of the "immense hurt" experienced by the family of a haemophiliac when a hospital placed their loved one in a body-bag after he died from hepatitis C. The Irish Haemophilia Society's Administrator, Rosemary Daly, said that the family was given no explanation prior to the man's death in March 1993 and it came as a "great shock".
Rosemary Daly has been explaining how people with haemophilia suffering from AIDS related illness were placed in body bags if they died in hospitals. Ms Daly said such was the stigma over HIV that many people with haemophilia kept their status secret, but if there was a sealed coffin due to a body bag then this confidentiality was gone.
Ms Daly told the Tribunal that she and the Society's nurse, Margaret King, formed a critical illness service to help such people die at home as it meant they could have an open coffin. She said that they were given no warning in the 1990s that people who died as a result of contracting hepatitis C from blood products would also be placed in body bags.
The IHS administrator said that it came as a great shock when the first person to die from hepatitis C was placed in a body bag and this caused immense hurt to the family. Ms Daly explained that it remains the practice of hospitals to place people who died from the HIV and hepatitis C viruses in body bags and this was a major concern for her Society.
The Irish Haemophilia Society only found out that the Government was going to offer a multi million pound HIV settlement an hour before former Minister for Health, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, went on an RTÉ TV programme to answer questions about the matter. IHS Administrator Rosemary Daly told the Lindsay Tribunal that a Minister of State had made comments on Questions and Answers in 1991 which they felt were inaccurate.
The Today Tonight programme subsequently invited Minister O'Hanlon to explain what the State was going to do about the infection of 106 haemophiliacs with HIV from blood products. Ms Daly said that prior to this programme in June "nothing had happened", but one hour before it was due to occur the Society was informed the Government was offering several million pounds. She said that members of the Society who had been infected with HIV decided on litigation in 1989 and took out loans of £30,000 to pay for legal costs as the Society could not afford it.
