AIDS patient forces hospital to come clean

• Source: Global Times
• [02:00 January 21 2010]
• Comments

An official surnamed Li from the local government told the Global Times Wednesday that they are helping with the negotiation between the hospital and the patients. But he did not say when the hospital found out the error and why they failed to trace the victims for so many years.

The hospital vice president, Xu Chunyang, told the newspaper in Wuhan that they were on the edge of collapse. Xu explained that they agreed to fully meet the first victim's compensation demand because they did not expect the number of victims to grow.

They decided to slash the compensation to between 70,000 ($10,250) and 90,000 ($13,178) yuan, and cancel the monthly subsidy in 2007. But the hospital will still cover treatment.

Calls to the hospital president's office were unanswered Wednesday.

Li Dun, an expert from the HIV/AIDS advisory committee under the Ministry of Health, told the Global Times that many hospitals refuse to admit mistakes.

"If the hospitals release the information promptly, it can help stop people from spreading the virus to others," he said.

The reluctance to disclose information by hospitals has sometimes led to family tragedies.

Li Xige, a 42-year-old resident of Ningling county, Henan Province, was infected with HIV during a caesarean section giving birth to her daughter in June 1995.

But Li was kept in the dark about the infection until the girl died from an AIDS related disease in August 2004. Two years before that, she gave birth to another daughter, who was also infected.

"I am really in despair," she told the Global Times Wednesday.

Li launched a lawsuit against the hospital in 2004 even though she has been given a subsidy of 600 yuan a month from both the government and the hospital. The lawsuit is still pending.