A four-year-old girl has received compensation from the hospital where her mother was infected with AIDS from contaminated blood and passed the HIV virus to her.
The intermediate people's court of Xingtai, a city in North China's Hebei Province, ruled that the hospital should pay 362,000 yuan (US$43,770) for the family's medical expenses, nutrition and spiritual suffering, according to China Youth Daily on November 16.
However, the sum was far from her father's original demand for 15.387 million yuan (US$1.9 million).
The father has appealed to Hebei Provincial Higher People's Court, the paper said.
The mother received 400 millilitres of type B blood three days after she delivered the baby girl in 1997.
The mother died of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, commonly referred to as AIDS, in 1999.
The father filed a law suit against the hospital last year.
The donated blood was accepted by the hospital without following the normal testing procedures, the paper quoted the court as saying.
The court found that the mother and the girl were infected with the HIV virus from the contaminated blood.
The court made the decision based on the fact that the hospital failed to submit adequate information to ascertain the identity of the blood donor, the paper said.
The little girl's misfortune was followed by the media and she has received widespread sympathy from the public at home and abroad including Nane Annan, wife of Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations.
(China Daily November 17, 2001)
