HIV-Contaminated Blood Is Transfused

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HIV-Contaminated Blood Is Transfused

American Medical News (12/09/96) Vol. 39, No. 46, P. 22

Abstract: A federal judge has ruled in favor of the United States in a negligence case brought by the estate of a patient who received a transfusion of HIV-tainted blood from a serviceman. The patient received the blood in February 1985, one month after it had been donated by a man in basic training in the U.S. Army. The donor was warned about donating blood if he was at-risk for HIV, but the blood was not tested for the virus because no test was available at the time. After the patient's death in 1989 from AIDS-related complications, his survivors and estate sued the U.S. government, charging that the blood center was negligent. Expert testimony presented at the trial, however, held that although the blood center had not operated according to federal regulatory guidelines, it had met the standard of care in effect in 1985. The court ruled that the patient's estate did not meet the necessary burden of proof.

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