Tainted blood ‘ left my son blind and in agony’ as he died aged 22

THe mother of a boy infected with HIV at the age of nine told the tainted blood inquiry yesterday how she nursed her son as he went blind and died.

Christopher Fowle – a haemophiliac – contracted the virus and hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood products in the 1980s. He died a day after his 22nd birthday.

In harrowing testimony his mother Christine, 74 and father Alan, 76, described being told their only son had been infected with HIV.

‘We were devastated because our son was an innocent nine-year- old,’ said Mrs Fowle. ‘His life was going to be cut short because he had been treated with blood products that were not safe.’

The blood inquiry is in its second week and comes after the Daily Mail campaigned for more than 30 years for justice for the victims. More than 7,500 people contracted HIV and hepatitis C after being treated with contaminated blood imported from the US in the 70s and 80s. Almost 3,000 died in what has been called the ‘worst treatment scandal in NHS history’.

Christopher Fowle’s parents told how they decided to keep the diagnosis from him and proceeded to do ‘everything they could to make the years he had happy’. It was not until he was 15 and ‘becoming a young man’ when they felt he needed to know about his condition.

Mrs Fowle said that while her son initially seemed to take his diagnosis well, she did not think he fully understood the ‘consequences’ as a teenager. But it was after that the family saw the ‘bright and clever lad’ leave school and begin to lose ‘interest in doing anything constructive’ with his life. His mother told how after a night out with friends ‘he came home and said “You know, Mum, I was looking around and thinking I’m different, I’m not like these people”.

‘As he got older he got angry. He lost his purpose,’ said Mrs Fowle who gave up work to nurse Christopher in his last 18 months.

‘He really started to go downhill,’ she said. ‘He had two bouts of pneumonia ... and infected ulcers in his legs and a lot of pain… and this went on for the last 18 months. He was very thin, jaundiced and he did go blind. And that was the last thing I remember really of him – not being able to see.’

He died in 1996 and his father asked for HIV to be taken off his death certificate to protect his memory at a time where there was a stigma around the virus. Mrs Fowle said the family has been left with a life-long pain. ‘We forever think about what might have been,’ she said.

Christopher received Factor VIII – the blood protein used in clotting – each week between 1981 and 1989. But when news started breaking about the contaminated products Mrs Fowle raised her concerns – which were dismissed.

Another mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told the inquiry in central London how her sons – both haemophiliacs – were infected with HIV aged six and eight. The younger boy developed Aids and died at 15 in 1994. She wept as she said: ‘Nobody’s ever told me how this happened, why it happened or just said to me “we’re sorry”.’

‘Nobody has told me why this happened’