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Blood Transfusion Negligence Compensation of €1.26m Awarded at the High Court

At High Court today a man, who is living with an advanced liver disease, is to get compensation of more than €1.26 million due to contracting Hepatitis C from a contaminated blood transfusion administered to him when he was just a toddler.

The man, who was awarded a provisional compensation award of €647,000 from the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal when he was 20-years-old, appealed to the High Court in relation to an additional compensation figure of €200,000 that was awarded to him in 2018. The man is now over 40-years old and is married with young children.

Mr Justice Bernard Barton , in a judgment released earlier this week, increased the €200,000 award by threefold to a sum of €620,642 while also increasing the tribunal’s general compensation award from €150,000 up to €220,000. This was in relation to the effects of decompensated cirrhosis of the liver – advanced liver disease – inflicted by the Hepatitis C virus.

The man said that he believed the award did not take into account the vicious consequences decompensated cirrhosis has had on his life. Consequence that will continue to affect him for the remainder of his life including shortening it and the likelihood he will develop liver cancer at some point in the future. He was also was seeking compensation in relation to some childcare costs arising from his inability to assist with childcare. His wife has a full time role in a senior position, is not due to retire anytime soon, so they have had to hire a permanent childminder.

In his final judgment, the judge noted that the man contracted Hepatitis C due to a contaminated blood transfusion given to him as a young child in the 1980s when he was being treat in hospital in relation to a different medical condition which was successfully treated.

However, during his teenage years, the Hepatitis C illness began to impact on his life and restrict his health. At one point he had to decline a promotion to an important position and had to retire from gainful employment when he was just 20 years old.

 

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