A woman using the name Veronica has told the Lindsay Tribunal that she had wanted to commit suicide since being diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
She said that she had suffered aches and pains and sleeplessness and lived a lie every day of her life because she was unable to tell people about her illness.
The Tribunal also heard testimony from the sister of John Scallan - a haemophiliac who died of AIDS, aged 34. Anita Geoghegan told the Tribunal that her brother's final illness had been badly handled by the medical profession.
She told that her father been very upset at the way Professor Ian Temperley broke the news to him that his son was dying. A statement by John Scallan himself was read out to the Tribunal in which he said that if he had been informed of the dangers of the Factor 8 blood product which infected him he would have stuck with his previous treatment.
Earlier, the Tribunal heard testimony from the mother of a young haemophiliac who died after contracting AIDS from contaminated blood. The mother told the Tribunal that the doctor who told her that her then 5-year-old son was infected had given the information in a very cold, blunt way.
Giving testimony anonymously, using the pseudonym Eithne, she said she had three sons with haemophilia. She said that the youngest of them - given the pseudonym Simon - was a very happy, quiet boy who loved football and Michael Jackson.
Eithne believed it was in 1998 that Dr Fred Jackson, a consultant haematologist, told her one of her boys had AIDS and had six years to live.
At first she thought he was referring to one of the other boys because Simon had had much less treatment than they. She said that Dr Jackson had been very blunt and cold while telling her and had not asked whether she had anyone with her to support her.
The boy died at the age of eleven. Counsel for Dr Fred Jackson said that it had always been Dr Jackson's wish and intention to be sensitive.
