COMPLEX has been one of the words most frequently applied to the blood sagas which, unfolded through 1996 with alarming regularity. The year been a muddle of platelets, plasma, donations, transfusions, Xs, Ys and cock-ups.
But the one constant amid it all has been those people at the receiving end - the patients - whose lives changed, for the worst, as a result of receiving a blood product from the Blood Transfusion Service Board. The 1,800 people infected with hepatitis C and, more recently, those who may have been infected through HIV-contaminated products. At the forefront have been the 1,100 Irish women infected through anti-D immunoglobulin.
It took the death of one of their members, Ms Brigid Ellen McCole, a Donegal mother of 12, finally to bring the issue centre-stage. The public reaction forced Michael Noonan to take the action needed to find out exactly what happened in the BTSB in the 1970s; to trace the trail of anti-D made from the plasma of a woman now known as "Patient X" in 1976, right through to the present day; by setting up a tribunal of inquiry.
And even to those closest to the controversy, the revelations at the tribunal of inquiry, which begin sitting on December 2nd, have been incredible. The first day of the extraordinary evidence proved that a tribunal had always been necessary. As the year closes, blood, in all its forms, is still centre-stage.
It is in contrast to the beginning of 1996, which was a rather bleak time for these women. There were few answer and in the Department of Health their voices were going unheard.
A number of women have told their story of being infected with hepatitis C. One is Ms Paula Kealy. She has severe liver damage as a result of the virus.
"The most hurtful thing about all of this is that no one has ever said they were sorry," she said. "Hepatitis C is like a time bomb inside you. We are living with that reality every single day. This is not a problem that can be solved with money alone. No money is going to compensate us for what happened to our livers. We want to see justice done. Not heads on plates, but an acknowledgment of what was done and an apology. Not this attitude of `Pay them money and we'll file them away'."
Back in January, newspapers were carrying large advertisements for a hepatitis C compensation tribunal which the women saw as flawed. It was set up to compensate, 1,800 Irish people who tested positive for hepatitis C. They felt they were being forced into it.
Their mood was not helped by two emergency cases involving terminally ill women. They were heard by the tribunal and were reported to have received awards of less than £50,000.
In the same month, Positive Action, an organisation representing these women, wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, asking him to pursue the issue of negligence in relation to anti-D contamination. He indicated he had no function to carry out such as investigation.
POSITIVE Action voted overwhelmingly, at the beginning of February, to reject the tribunal, which they said was ad hoc, not statutory and could be disbanded at any time. Over 400
writs were lodged in the High Court against the Minister for Health and the BTSB.
"Women are determined a tribunal must give them equal justice when compared to court - for the horrible wrong they are suffering and will continue to suffer," said Positive Action spokeswoman Ms Jane O'Brien. The Minister for Health, they believed, was trying to "woo women" with the promise of quick money.
In March, the Fine Gael parliamentary party, apparently realising that these women were not going to go away, appointed three TDs as mediators to discuss the women's difficulties with the compensation tribunal.
Details of tribunal awards, a number of them large, were made public, with one, woman receiving £251,900 on the first day of hearing.
On March 28th, the Junior Health Minister, Mr Brian O'Shea, told the Dail that there was no contradiction in the Expert Group Report into hepatitis C, headed by Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien. He said the expert group was aware of the 1976 file which showed that Donor X had infective hepatitis. However, the BTSB said the expert group did not, in fact, know this.
By April, Positive Action believed the Government commitment to transparency and openness appeared to be "no more than a discarded aspiration to victims of this tragedy". Infected women were being denied the truth about their ill health. The Government was trying to "cajole and corral" them into going the tribunal route. At a public meeting, they demanded a "full public inquiry before a High Court judge to determine the truth about the contamination".
MEANWHILE, the Government was forcing the identity of Brigid McCole, who first became known to the public as Bridget M. Roe, to be made known in the courts. Her identity was revealed when the High Court ruled she could not take her action using a pseudonym because it would contravene the Constitution. She had wanted to protect her privacy.
Conflicting medical evidence was given in the McCole case in April about Mrs McCole's condition and it was decided that her hearing could wait until October 8th.
Positive Action asked for an extension to the June 17th closing date of the compensation tribunal until after the outcome of the McCole case. It was refused.
Stepping up their campaign, members of the group crowded the Dail gallery to listen to a debate on the issue and heard the Minister softening his line and say that the closing date would remain but nobody would be forced to have their case heard. This resulted in a flood of applications to the tribunal however many of the women also continued with their High Court actions.
During those summer months, Brigid McCole's health was declining and she was hospitalised in Dublin as negotiations continued between her legal team and the BTSB's.
On September 20th, the BTSB sent a letter to her admitting liability, offering and apology, compensation and to pay costs. However, there was a catch. They wanted Mrs McCole to drop proceedings against the National Drugs Advisory Board and the State defendants and told her that if she proceeded with it, the BTSB would seek all additional costs incurred from the date of the letter. She would also have to drop her claim for aggravated damages.
"What was the justification of that threat?" her family later asked in a letter to Michael Noonan. Question marks still hang over who was authorising this strong-arm legal strategy for the BTSB.
As she was dying in October, a settlement of £175,000 was agreed - the same amount that she had rejected at the beginning of the summer when it had been lodged in the High Court by the BTSB.
On October 8th, the day Brigid McCole had been due to begin her High Court case, her family were in court receiving an apology from the BTSB. Five days after her death on October 2nd and under intense political pressure, Mr Noonan dropped his opposition and announced a Tribunal of Inquiry into the Hepatitis C Scandal.
It was a tragic irony that only by her death is the truth being discovered about what happened to Brigid McCole and all the others infected with hepatitis C.