Blood Transfusion related Hepatitis C

[sbd5251]

I was wondering how many of the people on here got HCV from a blood transfusion?  In 1989 my daughter received a blood transfusion which resulted in HCV infection.   She died in 2004 and in trying to understand how this could have happened, I discovered that the blood supply in the United States is horrible.  I sued the Red Cross, who wanted to settle with me, which I did not do because I would have had to sign a confidentiality statement. The suit was dismissed because of a statute of limitations issue.  The Red Cross never understood that is was not about money it was about them cleaning up the blood supply.

[nygirl7]

I agree with Marcia the blood supply is much safer now since 1992 than it was then.  If today a new disease were to be discovered though they could not be held responsible for the years prior...since they couldn't have known or done anything about it.

Of course there is always human error that could be factored as well but for the majority of us older folks I dont think we could prove that we got it via blood transfusion since many people have no idea how they got the disease and have not had any of the obvious ways (IVdu, xfusion, piercings etc) or had multiple ways that they could have gotten it.

I am very sorry for the loss of your child it seems to have happened very, very, very fast usually hepc is a slowly progressing disease that takes decades to do any serious damage.  Most of us have had it from 20 - 30 years and aren't in end stage yet.  I have never heard of anyone contracting it and dying in only five years. That is truly horrible.

[nygirl7]

OOOOops 15 years I guess I"m not as smart as I used to be :(

[sbd5251]

I am sorry to tell all of you but the blood supply today is not any safer than it was in 1989,  when Candace had her transfusion.  Please go to the  FDA website and just look at the blood that was recalled. They send it out and then recall it.   By the time the recall is sent out, the blood has already been been distributed.  The website is

http://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/enforcementreports/default.htm

Go to any week and scroll down to biologics.  I check every week because I know the blood supply is not as safe as the American Red Cross claims that it is.  They recalled 112 units in January 2010 with HIV.  In the last few weeks, they recalled over 4000 units that donor suitability was not adequately determined.  As far as suing the ARC,  I could sue them and did, but they did not want it to go to trial so they used the statute of limitations to have it thrown out.  I live in  SC where the statute of limitations is 3 years and Candace got the blood in Georgia and Georgia's is 2 years.  

[sunshines76]

The information you give in your posts scares me. I got a blood transfusion as a newborn in 1976. It was in Ukraine, not the U.S., but sure USSR's blood supply was not any safer too... Now, my newborn son had a blood transfusion in 2007. It was offered to us an option, and I was against doing it, but the doc insisted on blood transfusion and claimed that it was as safe as it could be... I wonder what I have to check my son for now...

[wtgb]

I am so sorry for your loss.  I can't even imagine what you are going through.  I am very concerned about the blood supply as my 7 year old just recently received 2 blood transfusions from a well known childrens hospital (not for HEP C).  When my husband asked if he could donate his own blood for our son we were told it would take too long  this particular time (because it was an ER situation).  We learned at this time that it may be reality that he may need more tranfusions in the future. I am very interested in keeping informed about the blood supply.

I have made so many bargains with "the big guy" to please let me take this all on so my children don"t have to .  I am 37 weeks into treatment and hoping for the best!!
Please let me know how i can be an advocate for making sure as best I can that my son doesn't recieve tainted blood and I pray that the blood he already rec'd will not come back to us at any time in his life.  

I am inspired by your dedication to this in honor of your daughter

[sbd5251]

I have been researching this issue for 8 years now and have a wonderful lawyer that is helping me.  He is receiving no payment from me or anybody else because I cannot afford to pay such fees.  My advice to anybody that has had a blood transfusion is to go to your family physician and have their blood tested for everything.  If you went to the FDA website, you saw what concerns me.  I don't want another child to go through what Candace went through.  I have paperwork that I found where the American Red Cross had blood that had AIDS, they knew it had AIDS and falsified records and sent it out to hospitals anyway.  For each unit of blood that is donated,  they run it through a filtration system and get RBC, Platelets, Plasma and 5 or 6 other products from that whole blood.  They then turn around and sell it to people that are in need for $800 to $1200 a unit.  They have been fined by the FDA more than any other organization in the US.  The last time I checked the total was over $37,000.000  for blood policy violations.  

Go have your Doctor run tests for everything.  The vCJD is a form of Mad Cow disease.  Candace had an illness that as yet has not been diagnosed.  She got sick when she was 2 years old and had severe brain damage from the illness.  After a 16 days in Pediatric ICU and another 10 days in a regular room,  I brought home a child that had the mentality of a 2 month old.  She lived to be until January 11, 2004  I am not doing this for sympathy.

If I can help someone out there, I am willing to do anything I can.  If God forbid, anything does come back abnormal, get a lawyer.   I will give my lawyer permission to give you any and all the information that I have accumulated over the past 8 years.  I have a ton of information.  I have committee meeting minutes, newspaper articles and in fact I don't even remember what information I have.  

I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON THIS.   CANDACE IS PUSHING ME AND MY LAWYER ONWARD WITH THIS.  THE AMERICAN RED CROSS WILL CLEAN UP THE BLOOD SUPPLY AND QUIT LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.