A Chinese farmer has won his lawsuit against a hospital in Shahe City, north China’s Hebei Province, for transfusing into his wife AIDS-contaminated blood as she delivered their daughter. The wife has since died and the daughter, now seven, has AIDS.

Wang Weijun and his seven-year-old daughter were awarded 362,000 yuan (US$43,700) in compensation by the Hebei Provincial Higher People’s Court. The decision, made on a final appeal, was made public Wednesday.

 

The court found that Jin Shuangying, Wang’s wife, was admitted into Kangtai Hospital in Shahe City on July 30, 1997, and gave birth to a baby girl on August 1.

 

As Jin hemorrhaged while in labor, the hospital administered a 400 ml blood transfusion on August 4. Not long after, Jin began to show early symptoms of AIDS.

 

Beijing’s Ditan Hospital diagnosed Jin with the AIDS in April 1999. She died at home on May 16 the same year. Her daughter also was diagnosed with AIDS.

 

By then, Wang suspected that his wife’s infection was connected with the blood transfusion at Kangtai Hospital.

 

He originally filed a lawsuit against the hospital in August 2000, and the Intermediate People’s Court of Xingtai City ruled in his favor. It ordered the hospital to pay 362,000 yuan to Wang and his daughter on October 15, 2001.

 

Both Wang, dissatisfied with the award, and the hospital, denying its responsibility, appealed to the provincial higher people’s court. It rejected the original findings and remanded the case for retrial.

 

The Xingtai court heard the case for the second time on September 23, 2003. The court held that facts showed clearly that the hospital had collected blood in violation of safety regulations and that Jin Shuangying had died of AIDS. The court again ordered the hospital pay Wang 362,000 yuan.

 

Wang and the hospital filed new appeals with the Hebei Provincial Higher People’s Court, which held a public hearing in February this year. On April 29, the court rejected their appeals and upheld the judgment of the Xingtai Intermediate People’s Court.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2004)