Associated Press - Thursday, July 25, 2002

Tampa lawyer Hendrik Uiterwyk said he planned to file the suit today on behalf of the 24-year-old man and his 6-month-old son, whose names he would not disclose. He said the man and his family are "devastated."

State law allows minor children to sue when a parent is totally and permanently disabled.

Uiterwyk said he is suing Florida Blood Service -- the primary blood bank for Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties -- and Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs, where the man received the infected blood while in for abdominal surgery in March.

"No. 1, we feel that maybe some of the warnings that were provided to him [by the hospital] were not adequate, and No. 2, we want to inspect and evaluate the procedures that were performed by Florida Blood Services in evaluation of this blood," Uiterwyk said.

Hospital spokesman Jerry Touchton declined comment Wednesday.

TOLD A WEEK AGO

The 24-year-old man and a woman in her mid-60s were told July 17 that they had contracted HIV from blood and plasma transfusions in Hillsborough and Pinellas county hospitals, according to Florida Blood Services, which processed the blood.

The donor gave infected blood in March but had contracted the disease so recently that tests on the blood didn't detect it, the blood bank said. The virus takes 7 to 10 days to build up sufficiently for detection.

When the donor returned to give blood again May 11, that blood tested positive for HIV and was destroyed, the blood bank said. The donor was notified, and officials began tracking down patients who received the previous donation.

The donor, who hasn't been publicly identified, first gave blood Sept. 12, when people rushed to donate after the terrorist attacks, then became a regular, the blood bank said.

Florida Blood Services contends it has done nothing wrong. Under Florida law, blood is not considered a commodity for sale, so it doesn't have the same liability exposure as other products.

BANKS PROTECTED

For the past 15 years, Florida's Blood Shield Law and the courts generally have protected blood banks that perform the best-available tests on donated blood.

They also have protected the confidentiality of the donors, confounding lawsuits by stopping plaintiffs' attorneys from interviewing infected donors to determine if they were properly screened.

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