San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, November 18, 1993
Yumi L. Wilson, Chronicle East Bay Bureau

In opening arguments in a civil suit, attorneys representing the families contended that the director of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association knew that AIDS could be transmitted through blood transfusions but failed to administer various tests that could have detected the virus.

As a result, 1-year-old Anthony Pinedo; 3-year-old Jane Roe; and 41-year-old Charlie Pope contracted the virus that causes AIDS from blood received in May 1984, the attorneys said. Two of the patients have since died. Roe, now a sixth-grader living in Stockton, is taking AZT.

The blood bank's attorney, Richard Dodge, disputed the allegations that the center was at fault. He said the blood bank did everything it could to conform to standards at that time.

"There's no indication their screening procedures were anything but proper," Dodge said.

Both sides agree that the three contracted HIV through the tainted blood; at issue is whether the blood bank failed to take the necessary steps to test its blood.

Before 1985, several tests, including ones for hepatitis B, were given to screen the blood of high-risk donors by many blood banks and hospitals. But screening for HIV antibodies was not routinely done until March of that year.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Raymond Marsh said the jury will have to decide whether the blood bank is liable in the three cases. "If the (blood bank) is liable, then further proceedings will be necessary," he said.

Any monetary damages would be determined during that next phase, he said.

Robert Bokelman, an attorney representing the families, took more than an hour to explain to the jury that most of the medical community was aware that HIV could be transmitted through blood transfusions in the early 1980s. He contended that the blood bank's director knew the risks and could have performed other tests.

Yesterday, the families gave brief accounts of how their loved ones contracted the deadly virus within a nine-day period in 1984.

Maria Roe said through an interpreter that she was not aware that her daughter had been given a blood transfusion during surgery on May 21, 1984, until many years later. In 1990, her daughter tested positive for HIV. Roe's real last name was withheld to protect her daughter's privacy.

Bobby Lee Pope of Benecia said her husband received a unit of tainted blood from the bank on May 14, 1984, while being treated for a bleeding disorder. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and died a year ago.

One-year-old Anthony Pinedo, who was suffering from a leukemia, was given tainted blood products from the blood bank on May 22, 1984, Bokelman said. He died at age 4 in February 1987. The trial is expected to resume Monday.

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