Society
Contaminated blood caused HIV infection
By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-21 08:08
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A rural patient fights for more compensation from hospital
A Hubei province patient who was infected with the HIV virus through a blood transfusion is seeking more compensation from the local hospital where he was infected with the deadly disease.
Zhang Kai (not his real name), a 38-year-old villager from Husi town of the provincial capital of Wuhan, was diagnosed with AIDS after a blood test last September.
He told doctors that he had undergone blood transfusions during an operation in 1997 at the No 2 Hospital in Daye, another city in Hubei, the local media Wuhan Morning Post reported yesterday.
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More than 80 patients who had operations at the Daye hospital between 1996 and 1997 were infected with AIDS, the newspaper quoted Xu Chunyang, deputy director of the Daye hospital, as saying.
Xu did not say whether more such cases are likely to be discovered.
Xu told the newspaper that during the 1990s, the hospital collected blood from four or five local villagers who were later found to be infected with HIV.
The blood was transfused to the patients undergoing operations at the hospital, with the doctors unaware that the blood was contaminated.
In the 1990s, many villagers in China earned quick cash by selling their blood to various collection stations. Some of the villagers were HIV positive.
The blood was then sold to hospitals.
The hospital offered to make a one-time payment of 100,000 yuan ($14,600) to Zhang as compensation for the transmission of the virus.
The report said that the hospital also offered to pay for his treatment.
Zhang demanded that the hospital pay him an extra monthly stipend of 600 yuan and arrange for his child to work at the hospital in the future.
When hospital officials rejected Zhang's demands, he turned to media for help.
Zhang's wife claimed that one of the patients infected with HIV at the same hospital had reached a much sweeter deal - a one-time 190,000 yuan payment, a monthly stipend of 500 yuan, and a promise to allow his child to work there later.
But Xu told the newspaper that hospital officials made that earlier deal when they had no idea that so many other patients were infected.
In the second half of 2007, the hospital adjusted the compensation to a one-time payment between 90,000 and 100,000 yuan plus the life-long coverage of fees for treatments.
Nearly 40 patients have agreed to this compensation, Xu said.
Daye is one of the 51 cities and counties approved by the country's health ministry as a trial model city showcasing the country's efforts for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
