Officials stonewall on tainted transfusions
A foul-up has the potential of leaving three Belizeans with the incurably fatal disease known as AIDS. But following the discovery yesterday morning that a woman and two children, all patients at the K.H.M.H., received transfusions of HIV tainted blood, officials are yet to come clean and explain to the public how such a tragic incident could have occurred. No officials would come forward today to offer any details of how one pint of blood managed to reach the bloodstream of three unrelated patients. What we know so far is that one patient, who had gone in for elective surgery on March twenty-ninth, is a thirty-two year old woman from Belize City. One of the children is also from Belize City, while the other is from the districts. All are being counseled, while their blood has been sent off to New Orleans for further testing. Government, in a terse press release from the chairman of the K.H.M.H. board, has indicated that it will seek the best care possible should it be confirmed that the patients are HIV positive. After literally dozens of hospital, laboratory and medical department officials either declined to be interviewed or failed to return phone calls, News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams caught up with Minister of Health Jose Coye and Voluntary Blood Donor President, Hubert Johnson.
Ann-Marie Williams
“We have this situation at the hospital, twenty-four hours now since the release, about twenty-seven, nobody’s saying anything. Everybody’s saying to me that it’s a Ministry of Health thing, the CEO from the hospital, Dr. Rosado, is saying it’s a Ministry of Health thing, speak to the Ministry of Health. What do you have to say?”
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“I think I understand very well the media’s concern.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“The public concern.”
Jose Coye
“No, the media because you’re talking to me as the media. But if we had acted differently, I can understand. We acted by taking the initiative to release the information immediately.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“No, Mr. Coye, that’s not good enough. The information was not released in terms of what happened. Nobody said what happened.”
Jose Coye
“Could we do something tomorrow when we finish our meeting, then we prepare to meet with the press again. We gave a release saying what happened. We’re doing an investigation and when we finish it, we will give another release.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Can I hold you to that tomorrow?”
Jose Coye
“Of course, you do.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“It’s a long Easter holiday, so tomorrow a lot of people will be missing from work.”
Jose Coye
“Yes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What do you think about, twenty-four hours after the release and the news is all around the town, but nobody has actually taken the responsibility, come forward and say what exactly happened?”
Hubert Johnson, Pres., Voluntary Blood Donor Service
“It is my understanding that they’re having meetings going on in the medical department. But I think that since medical issued that press release, they should be the one in the position to present the answers to the public.”
With recent developments in modern medicine there is no reason why HIV infected patients cannot live long and normal lives, but that quality of care is expensive. Hopefully, tomorrow’s press conference will answer more questions than it raises.
