A group of 19 AIDS patients in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province will receive
compensation worth a combined 20 million yuan (US$1.2 million) from
the hospital where they were infected with HIV after receiving an
illegal blood transfusion, their lawyer told China Daily
yesterday.
The group had initially sought 30 million yuan (US$3.75
million), but then settled for 20 million yuan (US$1.2 million),
sources said.
This case involves the largest single group of patients in China
to be infected with HIV at the hospital where they were being
treated. They have all since developed cases of AIDS.
The hospital will provide the 18 living victims with a lump sum
payment of 200,000 yuan (US$25,500) plus 3,000 yuan (US$382) per
month, according to Zhou Bin, a lawyer based in north China's Shanxi Province who had volunteered to help
the AIDS patients recover compensation from the hospital. The
hospital will also cover the victims' medical fees for the rest of
their lives.
The family members of a victim who has succumbed to AIDS,
surnamed Yang, will receive over 300,000 yuan (US$37,000) from the
hospital.
Fifteen patients contracted the fatal HIV virus, which causes
AIDS, after being treated at the hospital associated with the
Heilongjiang Construction Farm in Bei'an County in 2004.
They all received blood transfusions from illegal blood sellers
operating within the hospital. The blood had not been tested for
the virus.
Three of the 15 patients passed the virus on to their spouses,
and a mother infected her 5-year-old child, bringing to 19 the
total number of victims.
The group filed their lawsuit last year against the hospital,
demanding 30 million yuan (US$3.75 million) in total compensation.
They have since accepted the lower offer, said sources with the
Heilongjiang Construction Farm Intermediate People's Court.
Three staff members of the hospital were sentenced last June to
two, five and 10 years in jail, respectively, for illegally
collecting and supplying blood.
A man surnamed Sun and his wife were the sources of the
HIV-contaminated blood in all the above cases. They couple had made
a living selling blood to the Bei'an hospital and died before
Yang.
Sources familiar with the case said the 19 AIDS patients have
been living in poverty since they developed the illness.
This was not the first case of people being infected with HIV
after receiving a blood transfusion at a hospital.
In Tongshan County in east China's Jiangsu Province, more than 30 local farmers
have been infected with HIV in the past decade after accepting
illegal blood transfusions.
In recent years, many victims have opted to sue hospitals for
compensation after being infected by HIV under their care.
In 2004, the Hebei Provincial High People's Court ordered a
local hospital in Xingtai to pay over 360,000 yuan (US$45,000) to
the father of a girl who was infected with HIV while receiving
medical treatment.
(China Daily December 5, 2006)