Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday December 9, 1989
Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer
A San Francisco Superior Court jury this week found that the hospital did not inform Cambodian refugee Chan Tou Phen of the AIDS risk when she received a blood transfusion in November 1983 at age 39. The court ordered St. Mary's to pay $180,000 to her family.
The same jury exonerated Irwin Memorial Blood Bank, which supplied the HIV-infected blood.
The jury found that the blood bank had informed the hospital of the AIDS risk but that the hospital failed to pass the information on to the patient.
St. Mary's spokesman Alan Tomiyama said the case is not precedent-setting for others who have contracted AIDS through blood transfusions.
Chan Tou Phen was pregnant and hemorrhaging when she entered St. Mary's, according to court reports. She miscarried despite the transfusion and eight months later was informed by Irwin Memorial that the blood donor had the HIV virus that causes AIDS. She died in October 1987 at age 43.
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