Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
They didn’t deserve to die of AIDS
Ulster doc’s agony as he tells blood probe of tragic patients
A DOCTOR struggled to contain his emotions as he recalled haemophilia patients lost to the infected blood scandal.
Consultant haematologist Dr Gary Benson appeared overwhelmed when talking about those who died as a result of contracting HIV/AIDS after they were given contaminated blood by the NHS.
The ongoing Infected Blood Inquiry is currently hearing about haemophilia patients who were treated with Hepatitis C or HIV infected blood in the 1970s and 80s.
Of the 5,000 impacted across the UK, 99 were from Northern Ireland.
Dr Benson told the inquiry yesterday: “It wasn’t their fault that they got HIV, they didn’t deserve to get HIV – they didn’t deserve to die of AIDS but they did.”
The Belfast Trust doctor was in the early days of his career when he cared for affected patients.
He said: “Some of my older men who aren’t with us now told me as a junior doctor stories of all of these amazing people and what they watched them die and die of.
“But I think my older men were very clever because they knew I wouldn’t forget and in some way telling me, these men, I say their names with pride – I am so proud of them – they did nothing, nothing to warrant what happened.
SECRET
“And yet, you know families have been so affected, they have lived many years of not telling anybody what happened as if it’s a little secret that they can’t get out.
“I stand in the history of the service and remember them and every time you inject recombinant factor you remember why you inject it, you remember why that such lengths have [been] gone through in order to get it.
“You can’t unforget and I am glad that I can’t forget.
“Every time there’s an empty seat in the waiting room, I think that could have been him that I could have had an opportunity to look after – but I didn’t.
“I think my career has changed from that little green consultant in early 2008 who thought he could save the world. All we can ever do is try to improve on what has gone before – that’s what I’ll always strive to do.”
Earlier this week inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, said there appeared to be “an element of using patients” at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital as “guinea pigs”.
It followed examination of a 1988 letter from Dr Elizabeth E Mayne, consultant/director at the RVH Department of Haematology to Professor Ludlam at the Royal Infirmary in Scotland. It was said to be part of discussions about changing NHS product to commercial product, Profilate Factor 8. In it Dr Mayne wrote: “It would be interesting to see the reactions of the patients to this change over and to see if the number of units consumed is reduced.”
Sir Brian said: “There is also the implicit suggestion there that the patients will not have been asked in advance.
“It is going to be given to them and they wait to see what the reaction is.” The Infected Blood Inquiry started in September 2018 and is expected to be completed this year. Thousands across the UK were infected with hepatitic C and HIV as a result of Nhs-supplied blood products.
Some patients, however, contracted both hepatitis C and HIV. It is estimated that up to 3,000 of them have died of their infections.
All that we can do is try to improve on what has gone before
DR GARY BENSON YESTERDAY