JEDDAH: The medical disputes board at the Ministry of Health has ordered a private hospital in Jeddah to pay SR280,000 in compensation to a three-year-old girl who was mistakenly transfused blood contaminated with AIDS when she was eight months old, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Saturday.
The board also fined the hospital, which has not been named in the report, SR100,000 for serious medical negligence. The board’s investigations revealed that the child’s sensory organs, urinary tract and rectum were impaired because of the contaminated blood.
The girl was supplied with the blood after developing complications related to anemia. The hospital’s pediatrician had recommended immediate blood transfusion, after which her condition worsened. Subsequent investigations revealed that the blood was contaminated with AIDS.
On the parents’ insistence, the board launched an investigation, which revealed that a Filipino man had donated the blood.
It was also learned during the investigations that two elderly people also died shortly after receiving blood from the same donor. The cause of their deaths remained a mystery until the board’s investigations.
Investigators also found the Filipino donated blood at two other hospitals in Jeddah. Efforts to locate the donor went in vain, as he had left the Kingdom.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, 1,315 Saudis died of AIDS until 2008 out of a total of 13,926 cases diagnosed in the Kingdom. More than 10,500 of the diagnosed cases were foreigners. Under the law, foreigners who test HIV-positive are not allowed to work in the Kingdom.
