Comtaminated Blood
Discussion
A friend of mine is married to a lovely lady with a bleeding disorder. As a result she has, at some unspecified point in time, received contaminated blood.
She's an intelligent woman that had a decent career in IT. However she had to give up work a long time ago because of the Hep C she received and the antiviral medication she was taking which made he exhausted.
Annnnyway, this isn't about her.
I've know her husband 20 odd years and her not quite so long, but still a long time and she's always been ill but never complained.
A couple of years ago in January I was talking to her Husband and he said she was going to parliament to listen to a debate on contaminated blood and he couldn't go. I said I'd go instead.
The following is what I'd types on a leading social media site when I got home.
Today I have Mostly Been to The Houses of Parliament. My good friend from college has a wife with a bleeding disorder called Von Willebrand disease. When she was a little 'un she was give blood contaminated with Hep C and is one of 4000 or so others given contaminated blood. Any road there was a debate in Parliament today on the subject and I was invited along.
We started in the public gallery for the debate on what they are to debate before the election, I forget what the debate was called. William Hague was in charge and was very good. It was interesting to see how he batted away the PMQ style questions, then in the next breath answer questions on completely different subject.
Then on to the main event, the discussion on contaminated blood. Long story short, it lasted over 3 hours and at the start John Bercow asked if back benchers would limit their statements to 7 minutes. On the wall are numerous telly screens, some have live pictures, some from the BBC with subtitles, one tells you who is speaking and 2 are a stop watch with a 7 minute countdown. All of the back benchers very skillfully managed to keep their statements to within a couple of seconds of 7 minutes.
I'll not bore you with all of the gory details, and there were a lot. The MP that started proceedings was welling up with tears reading his statement, to give an idea of the subject matter. One spoke of a 7 year old boy that died of AIDS given to him from contaminated blood. A 8 year old girl contracted Hep C after having a tooth and her tonsils out. One man contracted Heps A, B and C and countless other awful accounts came from all sides of the house. There has also been a considerable cover up of the facts. One man's doctor wrote to his employers advising them he (the patient) had Hep C 12 months before he told the patient and the first time it was mentioned to my friends wife was when it came out in passing at a hospital appointment in her 30's when she would have been contaminated 20 years before.
Anyway,I think they said it is the 15th biggest peace time disaster in British history. To put that into context, Aberfan was 113th. 1800 people have already died.
After all this was over we had a coffee and the MP's intern (who looked a bit like Kyle Gass) took us around the Houses of Parliament. He was probably more enthusiastic that knowledgeable, but clearly loved it there. We sat in the public gallery in The Lords for a bit then went into a few of the committee rooms then onto Portcullis house. All in all a great day and I hope these poor people get what they deserve.
There seems to have been a little more momentum gathering in the media of late, it really is about time they got some justice.
http://contaminatedbloodcampaign.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Contaminated-Blood-...
http://www.taintedblood.info/index.php
She's an intelligent woman that had a decent career in IT. However she had to give up work a long time ago because of the Hep C she received and the antiviral medication she was taking which made he exhausted.
Annnnyway, this isn't about her.
I've know her husband 20 odd years and her not quite so long, but still a long time and she's always been ill but never complained.
A couple of years ago in January I was talking to her Husband and he said she was going to parliament to listen to a debate on contaminated blood and he couldn't go. I said I'd go instead.
The following is what I'd types on a leading social media site when I got home.
Today I have Mostly Been to The Houses of Parliament. My good friend from college has a wife with a bleeding disorder called Von Willebrand disease. When she was a little 'un she was give blood contaminated with Hep C and is one of 4000 or so others given contaminated blood. Any road there was a debate in Parliament today on the subject and I was invited along.
We started in the public gallery for the debate on what they are to debate before the election, I forget what the debate was called. William Hague was in charge and was very good. It was interesting to see how he batted away the PMQ style questions, then in the next breath answer questions on completely different subject.
Then on to the main event, the discussion on contaminated blood. Long story short, it lasted over 3 hours and at the start John Bercow asked if back benchers would limit their statements to 7 minutes. On the wall are numerous telly screens, some have live pictures, some from the BBC with subtitles, one tells you who is speaking and 2 are a stop watch with a 7 minute countdown. All of the back benchers very skillfully managed to keep their statements to within a couple of seconds of 7 minutes.
I'll not bore you with all of the gory details, and there were a lot. The MP that started proceedings was welling up with tears reading his statement, to give an idea of the subject matter. One spoke of a 7 year old boy that died of AIDS given to him from contaminated blood. A 8 year old girl contracted Hep C after having a tooth and her tonsils out. One man contracted Heps A, B and C and countless other awful accounts came from all sides of the house. There has also been a considerable cover up of the facts. One man's doctor wrote to his employers advising them he (the patient) had Hep C 12 months before he told the patient and the first time it was mentioned to my friends wife was when it came out in passing at a hospital appointment in her 30's when she would have been contaminated 20 years before.
Anyway,I think they said it is the 15th biggest peace time disaster in British history. To put that into context, Aberfan was 113th. 1800 people have already died.
After all this was over we had a coffee and the MP's intern (who looked a bit like Kyle Gass) took us around the Houses of Parliament. He was probably more enthusiastic that knowledgeable, but clearly loved it there. We sat in the public gallery in The Lords for a bit then went into a few of the committee rooms then onto Portcullis house. All in all a great day and I hope these poor people get what they deserve.
There seems to have been a little more momentum gathering in the media of late, it really is about time they got some justice.
http://contaminatedbloodcampaign.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Contaminated-Blood-...
http://www.taintedblood.info/index.php
I'm not seeking any justice personally.
My understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source. Nobody has been held to account for this, mainly because it has been thousands of individual cases rather than one big disaster. Had it been one big case, people would have at the very least been struck off medical registers and possibly jailed.
There were plenty of examples of people loosing careers and becoming destitute due to the illnesses brought on by receiving contaminated blood, so it probably wouldn't be unreasonable to have them compensated for loss of earnings based on an average wage. Quite how you adequately give some justice to a child that went to the dentist and came home with AIDS is not something I am able to comment on and am just trying to bring this subject to the attention of the wise owls of PH.
My understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source. Nobody has been held to account for this, mainly because it has been thousands of individual cases rather than one big disaster. Had it been one big case, people would have at the very least been struck off medical registers and possibly jailed.
There were plenty of examples of people loosing careers and becoming destitute due to the illnesses brought on by receiving contaminated blood, so it probably wouldn't be unreasonable to have them compensated for loss of earnings based on an average wage. Quite how you adequately give some justice to a child that went to the dentist and came home with AIDS is not something I am able to comment on and am just trying to bring this subject to the attention of the wise owls of PH.
Interesting, and sad. But I'm not sure what you think or hope is going to happen.
Some financial compensation may make life easier for the victims, but no amount of money is enough to compensate for a death or a life destroyed. And that compensation will come out of the pockets of innocent people.
Secondly, the medical "profession" has always and continues to use the population as guinea pigs and cash cows, with little accountability, institutionalised covering up, and the persecution of whistleblowers. I very much doubt this will change - the NHS is a socialist icon, an enormous employer, and pretty much a block vote. It will remain largely unfixable and untouchable for some time to come. The chances of any individual being held to account for their decisions must be sub zero.
Some financial compensation may make life easier for the victims, but no amount of money is enough to compensate for a death or a life destroyed. And that compensation will come out of the pockets of innocent people.
Secondly, the medical "profession" has always and continues to use the population as guinea pigs and cash cows, with little accountability, institutionalised covering up, and the persecution of whistleblowers. I very much doubt this will change - the NHS is a socialist icon, an enormous employer, and pretty much a block vote. It will remain largely unfixable and untouchable for some time to come. The chances of any individual being held to account for their decisions must be sub zero.
It's still going on,a bloke I worked with needed a lung transplant and was going through the motions, finally got the green light after a few years and went for final screening but had contaminated hepatitis between initial and final screening. The hospital initially claimed it must have been sexualy transmitted but this was a bloke who slept in the living room and couldn't make a cup of tea without gasping for breath. His shagging days were a long time over. The hospital finally admitted he had been contaminated at some point during hospital blood or dirty needles but as he had been to several hstpitals and trusts they would never know where the blame lied or could be proved.
Hep would have rejected the lung so nothing more could be done and he died not to long after.
Hep would have rejected the lung so nothing more could be done and he died not to long after.
Willy Nilly said:
I'm not seeking any justice personally.
My understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source.
Sorry to hear about your mates but as I understand it we specifically get our UK blood from healthy volunteers on the high street who are categorically not paid a feeMy understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source.
Hep C seems to be the latest blood bourne tragedy, previously it was the HIV virus being contracted this way
Now both the above are screened there will undoubtedly be another as yet undiscovered one in the future too
I dont see how you can screen for as yet unknown pathogens...................
Agree on the unknown stuff, but I got the impression there were lessons to be learnt about what was known about Hep and how long that took to influence the screening etc.
There is usually room for improvement in these matters, though I also agree there is little point in shooting people/processes after the event if they were genuinely unaware.
There is usually room for improvement in these matters, though I also agree there is little point in shooting people/processes after the event if they were genuinely unaware.
grumbledoak said:
Interesting, and sad. But I'm not sure what you think or hope is going to happen.
Some financial compensation may make life easier for the victims, but no amount of money is enough to compensate for a death or a life destroyed. And that compensation will come out of the pockets of innocent people.
Secondly, the medical "profession" has always and continues to use the population as guinea pigs and cash cows, with little accountability, institutionalised covering up, and the persecution of whistleblowers. I very much doubt this will change - the NHS is a socialist icon, an enormous employer, and pretty much a block vote. It will remain largely unfixable and untouchable for some time to come. The chances of any individual being held to account for their decisions must be sub zero.
Indeed, there are isolated cases that come to court however self regulation rarely works in a quango. Some financial compensation may make life easier for the victims, but no amount of money is enough to compensate for a death or a life destroyed. And that compensation will come out of the pockets of innocent people.
Secondly, the medical "profession" has always and continues to use the population as guinea pigs and cash cows, with little accountability, institutionalised covering up, and the persecution of whistleblowers. I very much doubt this will change - the NHS is a socialist icon, an enormous employer, and pretty much a block vote. It will remain largely unfixable and untouchable for some time to come. The chances of any individual being held to account for their decisions must be sub zero.
numtumfutunch said:
Sorry to hear about your mates but as I understand it we specifically get our UK blood from healthy volunteers on the high street who are categorically not paid a fee
Hep C seems to be the latest blood bourne tragedy, previously it was the HIV virus being contracted this way
Now both the above are screened there will undoubtedly be another as yet undiscovered one in the future too
I dont see how you can screen for as yet unknown pathogens...................
I don't often get near a tin foil hat, but your post irritated me. The uk did source blood from the US and there was plenty of prior knowledge on the risks.Hep C seems to be the latest blood bourne tragedy, previously it was the HIV virus being contracted this way
Now both the above are screened there will undoubtedly be another as yet undiscovered one in the future too
I dont see how you can screen for as yet unknown pathogens...................
It is a fair point that future knowledge should not be used to judge present best practice; but if the practices fall short of competence, then the passage of time should not be allowed to let the complicit escape their responsibilities.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tainted_blood_scan...
numtumfutunch said:
Willy Nilly said:
I'm not seeking any justice personally.
My understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source.
Sorry to hear about your mates but as I understand it we specifically get our UK blood from healthy volunteers on the high street who are categorically not paid a feeMy understanding is that the blood was sourced from prisoners in the US, which is hardly going to be a reputable source.
Hep C seems to be the latest blood bourne tragedy, previously it was the HIV virus being contracted this way
Now both the above are screened there will undoubtedly be another as yet undiscovered one in the future too
I dont see how you can screen for as yet unknown pathogens...................
The further issue being that HM Government has and continues to kick this particular can down the street, hoping it will go away, which it will ultimately, when all of the people infected die of their illnesses. In the mean time people are living on benefits and hand out because they cannot work through an illness that was no fault of their own and avoidable.
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