Chinese boy infected with HIV after blood transfusion wins compensation battle ... but his parents want more
Parents of youngster to appeal as they argue 400,000 yuan award not enough, newspaper reports
A court has ruled that a nine-year-old boy from central China who was infected with HIV from a hospital blood transfusion is to be awarded 400,000 yuan (HK$458,000) in compensation.
The boy will receive the cash from five medical institutions, including three hospitals, the Beijing Times reported.
The boy’s parents, however, filed an appeal on Tuesday as they had hoped to get 1.1 million yuan in compensation, the newspaper said.
The boy was taken to the Municipal People’s Hospital in Zhangjiajie in Hunan province in January two years ago after he was hit by a tractor and later received a blood transfusion.
He was then taken to other two hospitals in Hunan and Shanghai by his mother, who stopped work to take care of him.
The Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Hunan diagnosed the boy with HIV on July 8, 2014.
The only way he could have been infected was through the blood transfusion, his mother was quoted as saying.
She later filed lawsuits against the five medical institutions, including the three hospitals where her son was treated, plus a blood product supplier and blood station that transferred the sample used in the transfusion to Zhangjiajie, according to the report.
The court ruled that each of the five institutions should take 20 per cent of the blame as they could not provide evidence that proved their lack of involvement in the case.
There have been numerous reports of HIV infection through blood transfusion or donations in China.
The most serious cases involved thousands of residents in rural areas of Henan province who were all infected with the virus after selling their blood in the 1990s.
China has since enforced stricter rules to oversee blood donations and transfusions.
