Faulty blood transfusions happen every day around the world. There are always cases in the news about people who developed HIV after receiving infected blood. Usually, people need blood transfusions after being in a major accident or when they have an extreme illness. Unfortunately, sometimes people receive faulty blood transfusions that worsen their condition.
Faulty blood transfusions include:
- receiving infected blood
- receiving the wrong type of blood
- blood being administered incorrectly
- failing to test or prepare blood correctly
- failing to prepare the patient correctly
- failing to monitor the patient correctly
Blood can be infected by any number of illnesses, including:
- HIV/AIDS
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- babesiosis (from tick disease)
- Mad Cow disease
These diseases are very dangerous and life threatening. If a patient receives blood containing one of these diseases, they could face a lifetime of medical expenses and treatments. Or, they could die.
According to the Federal Drug Administration, there are more than 3,000 blood banks that handle more than 14 million units of blood each year, and 3.5 million patients who receive that blood. Blood testing is done by each blood bank with every new unit of blood they receive. According to the FDA, blood testing includes:
- Donor screening to determine potential risks
- Blood testing for infectious diseases
- Keeping donor lists of people who have been deferred to make sure blood is not collected from those people
- Quarantining the blood to keep it from infecting others until it has been proven healthy
- Notifying the FDA if there are any problems or concerns
The FDA mandates that blood banks test for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, Human T-Lymphotropic Virus, and Syphilis.
Faulty blood transfusions don’t just have to contain infected blood. Faulty blood transfusions can be caused by hospital negligence and medical malpractice as well. For example, if a person is given blood that doesn’t match his/her blood type, results can be devastating. Usually, the person will begin to develop a fever as the body rejects the blood. If blood continues to be administered, internal damage can occur, including kidney and heart damage. This is almost always a case of negligence and/or malpractice, because proper tests were not conducted and the patient was not monitored correctly. Contact a personal injury lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice if you or a loved one was a victim of a faulty blood transfusion.
Tags:
blood loss,
blood transfusion,
car accident,
faulty blood transfusion,
HIV/AIDS,
kidney damage
