AMs call for inquiry into blood scandal for victims
A CALL has been made for a public inquiry into a scandal which saw thousands given contaminated blood products.
During the 1970s and 1980s, 283 people in Wales were infected and 70 have so far died as a result of the contamination.
It was one of the biggest medical scandals of the past three decades, as blood products taken from prisoners or prostitutes were used in the treatment of people with haemophilia.
Across the UK, thousands of patients unwittingly contracted HIV or hepatitis and many have suffered health complications or died as a result.
A cross-party group of AMs yesterday asked an inquiry to be held to get patients, and their families, answers. They were Labour’s Julie Morgan, Hefin David and Jenny Rathbone, Plaid Cymru’s Dai Lloyd and Rhun ap Iorwerth as well as Conservative Mark Isherwood.
Mrs Morgan said: “They have been on a long journey, from individuals and their families first being told that they have been given contaminated blood and that they could develop HIV or liver disease, to dealing with increasingly poor health, to fighting for compensation payments.
“In the past many of them felt that they could trust the government to do the right thing. That they would get the support they need because their lives have been damaged beyond repair through no fault of their own. That view has now changed.
“They want a public inquiry in order to get at the truth about what happened”.
Mr Isherwood said: “Contaminated blood has had – and continues to have – a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of people with haemophilia and their families.
“Those infected live with the health effects and with more deaths each year a public inquiry is the only way forward to get to the truth for those in- dividuals and families so badly affected.”
Patients and their families went to the Senedd to hear the debate. Tony Summers’ 44-year-old son Paul died in 2008 as a result of blood contamination. He had been given the blood when he was 17.
“He was an architect and carried on working in the whole, despite being desperately ill. He kept on working until two weeks before his death, he was just 44. I’ve been involved in trying to get satisfactory answers for 30 years or so and it’s taken a very long time for anybody to propose a public inquiry.
“There was no reason for this. The contaminated blood was used and it caused the death of 70-plus people in Wales and more across the UK. Compensation should be given to the widows and the dependants.
“The NHS killed our sons, brothers and fathers. I hope there will be a public inquiry and I hope that there will be greater awareness from the public on how it is for these families to survive. They’re reliant on handouts”
David Thomas, 45, is a dadof-two from Penarth. He was infected as a teenager between 1982 and 1983. He believes his infection came as a result of being hospitalised with a nosebleed which lasted three weeks.
“It went on throughout the 1970s and 1980s even though there was an idea that there were issues.”
He was tested for HIV in the late 1980s, a time he described as “incredibly stressful”.
“I know, through the community about 10 to 20 people who have had liver transplants. One of my cousins had one. I have seen dozens of people die.
“My cousin, Leigh, was haemophiliac. He had the same type as me and his DNA makeup was pretty similar to mine. I had to watch him go through the latter stages of liver disease. It was horrific.”
David recovered with a pioneering treatment, but that only came after three failed attempts at a different treatment which had huge side-effects.
In 2009 doctors discovered his liver was 4/5 of the way to sclerosis.
“My life was turned upside down. My daughter was twoand-a-half and my son was nine-months-old and then you’re presented with that. Concurrently, I am visiting my dying cousin.
“During all that, you have a job to do and trying to come in to work. At that time, there was still something of a stigma associated with it. Until 2009, I didn’t tell any of my friends that I had Hepatitis C.”
At that time, he and his wife began researching alternative treatments and he was eventually given compassionate access to the AbbVie 3D scheme, due to his current health state and his family background.
He started that trial in January 2015 and was clear within two weeks. All tests since then have also been clear. But, like many of those affected David wants answers.
“Why was that allowed to happen and why were these products administered for up to eight years. It just beggars belief.”