Victims, false hopes and a treacherous donation project gone wrong. After the medical treatments were allocated resulted in living testimonies ending up bedridden, having not much to live for. This is the story of real people suffering from an avoidable cause.
Here, I present to you a timeline of events that have unfolded and accumulated leading up to the infected blood scandal that holds the NHS accountable even to this day. Labelled as “The Worst Treatment Disaster in the NHS History.” In the 1970s and 80s, tens of thousands of NHS patients were given blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. A public inquiry was launched in 2018, and on May 20th, of this year, it finally published its report. That the disaster was no accident, and that people’s trust was breached. This report that has come out, brings an end to that. For thousands affected, to them, it becomes too late. It’s a bloody disgrace that covered up the victim’s traumas.
Back then, Caroline Wheeler was the political editor of Sunday Times. At the very beginning of her career, that took place in 2001, when she was part of a trainee scheme, she had a life-changing phone call from a man named Mick Mason. She had got a call telling that he had been infected with Hepatitis C, HIV, and also feared that he was infected with the human version of mad cow disease. The ‘Mad Cow’ disease was all news at that time. He narrated out to her, how he was infected with contaminated blood products.
As this was one her first days on the job, she doubted the claims made by him, so she went off the call and started doing a bit of research, only to realise that she was informed of the nightmares that were actually real. She came to the conclusion that it was the ultimate truth.
It was an eye opener to a 21 year old at that time. As a reporter, she was shocked that it wasn’t on the front page or cover of every newspaper as it was something that required necessary reporting. She was just able to find snippets of information available on the internet, it resulted in a two-decade long journey, for justice of the medical wrongdoings or in other words, medical negligence.
Mick, the man on the call was a haemophiliac, and the story he had to tell was about the affected haemophiliac patients. Haemophilia arises as there is lack of a coagulating factor for the blood coagulation process. So, they require blood products for this disease, Mick at the age of 18 found out that he was infected with HIV. He got infected with HIV from using blood products and drugs that were meant to improve his health.
He finds out about this when his doctors send him a balanced diet worksheet for those suffering from HIV. Many patients who went in for rounds of blood transfusions for one treatment or another had no clue that this was infected blood they were dealing with. There’s an estimate that around 5,000 people were infected and more than half have died. This also unfortunately did include many non-haemophiliacs as well; those who went through a car crash or child birth. The total count increases upto 35,000 people, in addition, to haemophiliacs who were also infected with Hepatitis C during this period.
The story of how this came about is really crazy, in the 1960s, Dr. Judith G. Paul discovered a process of freezing and thawing plasma. This gives a factor rich plasma that could potentially be used for haemophiliacs. Factor VIII is responsible for Haemophilia A. This discovery further advanced treatments for haemophilia. Demand overtook the supply, and this plasma was having low numbers of people for blood donation. This meant that the NHS had to look elsewhere for other options, the establishment turned to the American blood donation system which was very different compared to the UK. Many people would get paid for donating their blood.
Back in 1975, the nightmare was just getting started. 24 highland clinics in the US, were taking blood for haemophiliacs in the UK. A filming crew in San Franciso made a horrifying discovery, that homeless people, drug addicts and alcoholics were listed for blood donation. Here, the rules were not at all followed.
4 scary truths were revealed on an undercover radio investigation; one; no check was done on the false addresses noted down, two; doctors there did not check for the drug uses made, three; physical examinations were not completely done, four; medical questions that weren’t asked were filled out as satisfactory in forms-a breach in confidentiality and trust. It became a common sight on Skid Row, and was popularly nicknamed as ‘ooze for booze’. People would pay up for their drinking habits from their blood. Prisoners were paid upto $7 for a pint of blood.
Pooling of blood was done to create the factor concentrate which meant that if one person’s blood was infected and the rest wasn’t, everyone is now having the higher risk of infection from the mixed infected blood. Mixed blood in 1975 with screening was another whole story. The blows were already felt by patients relying on the NHS blood supply chain. Anita Roddick, the Founder of The Body Shop was one of the first few who were infected by this contaminated blood. She was probably infected in 1971.
In January of 1982, Professor Bloom, a haemotologist, was involved in the treatment of haemophilics. It started with chimpanzees, and eventually children unfortuately were tested on, and around a third were infected with HIV. The school that agreed on the human testing of children for HIV is still standing even to this day. The NHS holds liability for the deaths caused by the experimentation.
Nivea Vaz
Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara
Credit: Times Radio
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