HIV Victim

Dominic, aged 50, has severe haemophilia and was diagnosed HIV positive in 1985

Dominic, aged 50, has severe haemophilia and was diagnosed HIV positive in 1985. He was shocked and stunned by the diagnosis, but the consequences of it did not hit him until the late 1980s when friends started to die.

A father of four, he was fearful of the consequences for his children. "You put your head down and get on with it and hope people don't put two and two together," he said.

"Somebody did something wrong and covered it up and it caused death. The Factor 8 was bought and brought into this country by the BTSB. I don't believe they checked or cared, or was it a financial consideration? I don't believe they did their job. It's appalling that so many people have died because somebody did not do the job they were paid to do," he said.

Growing up he suffered a lot of bleeding and in the 1980s was prescribed the Factor 8 blood clotting agent, which he understood was imported from the US where people were paid for blood donations.

READ MORE

A doctor who had saved his life by successfully removing his appendix in the 1960s advised him to use Factor 8.

The HIV diagnosis changed his outlook on life. He felt he might have just five years to live. He decided to sell his home in Dublin and move to his home county of Cork and set up a business so there would be something for his family when he was gone. He could not let his children see him on social welfare.

He did not receive any counselling.

When a compensation tribunal for those infected with hepatitis C visited Cork in 1996 he was informed by a barrister that his HIV status was so bad he should seek treatment. His T cell count was down to 60 and, once below 200, one was in the realm of AIDS. He had no energy and no interest in life or work. An infectious diseases consultant at St James's Hospital started him on triple therapy which saved and improved his life.

Nobody ever told him he had hepatitis C. He read it in a letter of referral from a physiotherapist in Dublin to one in Cork after he had a hip replacement operation in 1991. He felt let down by the healthcare system.

Counsel for the BTSB indicated the blood board would deny some of Dominic's claims when its representatives give evidence later.