Medical negligence news

'Swift action' needed for blood scandal victims

A Bishops Tawton woman whose husband died after he was given infected blood for his haemophilia is urging the Government to give proper compensation to the victims of the scandal.

Sue Threakall's husband, Bob Threakall, from Birmingham, died in 1991 at the age of 47. He had contracted HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C after he was given a contaminated blood product by the NHS to help treat his haemophilia in the 1970s. It later emerged that the drugs firms producing the blood products had taken blood from high-risk donors, including drug users, in the USA.

Some 4,800 British haemophiliacs were infected with hepatitis C through NHS treatment and more than 1,200 were infected with HIV. Of those 1,200, more than 800 people have died and hundreds more have died from hepatitis C. In addition, 170 non-haemophiliacs were infected with HIV and others infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood; many of those have also died.

Sue, 55, has been campaigning for 27 years to get apologies and compensation for the victims of the blood donation scandal. She her family were "ripped apart" by Bob's death 18 years ago.

She said: "I started campaigning a long time ago but it's gone beyond what happened to us. The main point we are trying to get over is that this is not something that happened 20-odd years ago; it's an ongoing problem.

"We are urging the Government to act swiftly and positively."

Sue, a former primary schoolteacher who works part-time as a clerical assistant, now spends many hours a day helping run the Tainted Blood campaign group. Her partner, Stephen Marsh, was the postmaster in Bishops Tawton before the Post Office closed his branch in September last year.

A two-year inquiry, chaired by Lord Archer, said the infection of haemophiliacs had been a "horrific human tragedy". Archer handed the Government eight recommendations, including compensation for victims and their families.

The inquiry, which cost £75,000 and was funded by donations and volunteers, not the Government, found the contamination could have been avoided if infected blood had not been imported from the USA.

So far, the Government has offered sympathy to people affected and promised to look at the inquiry findings. Sue said that response had been insufficient and patronising.

You can sign a petition in support of the Tainted Blood campaign at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/contaminated/

Created: 08/02/2010
Categories: Blood products