Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - July 18, 2007
Michael Higgins, Tribune staff reporter, mjhiggins@tribune.com
Jacqueline Makombe, a central African of Tutsi descent, contracted AIDS after being raped by soldiers in 1998 during the war in the Congo.
Makombe fled with her family to Chicago in 2000 and received treatment at Chicago Health Outreach Clinic, a federally funded clinic that helps refugees. But clinic staff did not act promptly in 2001, when Makombe began to show signs of lactic acidosis, an often-fatal side effect of her medication, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said in a ruling on Monday.
"Ms. Makombe was receiving state-of-the-art HIV treatment; and the treatment was working," Pallmeyer wrote in an 82-page opinion. "That she died from the very medication that was helping her, at a time when her life was full of promise, is wrenching."
She said it was clear the clinic's mission was admirable and that staff who treated Makombe wanted to help her.
The case was tried before Pallmeyer without a jury in December.
Makombe's husband, Innocent Kasongo, represented his wife's estate in the lawsuit. Pallmeyer's award includes $1 million to each of Makombe's three children.
The family fled to the U.S. after Kasongo rescued his wife from a military camp, said the family's attorney, David Pritchard of Waukegan.
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