The Madras High Court on Friday ordered Rs. 25 lakh compensation, a government job and a house for a pregnant woman, who was transfused with HIV-infected blood at a state-run hospital in Tamil Nadu's Sattur town where she was treated for anaemia in December 2018.
Hearing public interest litigation, a division bench of the court's Madurai bench ordered that Rs. 10 lakh be deposited in the name of the 23-year-old woman and the remaining Rs. 15 lakh in the name of her two children.
Also, it ordered that the woman be provided a house measuring not less than 450 square feet. The judges said the order must be carried out by January 11.
The PIL had also sought a direction to the government to fill vacancies in the Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Board and that the woman should be given proper treatment.
The pregnant woman was affected by transfusion of infected blood from a blood bank, the petitioner submitted, adding the blood donor was also not aware that he was HIV positive.
Three workers of the government hospital at Sivakasi have been suspended as they failed to screen the blood properly.
The man who donated the blood at Sivakasi in November 2018 was also not informed about the status.
The donor came to know about his condition when he underwent a medical check-up days after donating the blood.
The judge said nurses, counsellors and blood bank technicians should be recruited as per the conditions of the National AIDS Control Organisation, and the government should monitor the blood banks, ART (antiretroviral therapy) centres and medical documents.
Besides, they should check if the equipment are maintained properly and inspected frequently by authorised people, the judges said.
An expert committee should be formed to make blood donation and transfusion safe, the court added.
