Subject: Damages Are Denied In a Lawsuit Brought Against a Blood Bank
Date: Published: 5/1/89 (48 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Law:  
    Damages Are Denied
    In a Lawsuit Brought
    Against a Blood Bank

    SAN FRANCISCO -- A Superior Court jury here decided not to
 award damages to a woman who became infected with the
 acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus after receiving
 blood from Irwin Memorial Blood Bank in 1984.
    The jury found that the blood bank wasn't negligent in the
 way it screened donors before its adoption in 1985 of a newly
 available test that permitted detection of the AIDS virus.
    Betty Dale, the 59-year-old plaintiff, received 20 units
 of blood when she underwent heart bypass surgery in February
 1984.  She was found to have AIDS two years later.  Her
 attorney, Fred G. Meis, said the verdict will be appealed.
    Irwin was "successful in convincing the judge they
 shouldn't be held to a standard higher than other {blood}
 banks," Mr. Meis said.  But, he said, because of "the nature
{
 !e epidemic and the fact that this {San Francisco} area
 had the high population of gay men" that it does, Irwin
 should have taken "extraordinary measures to protect the
 blood supply."
    Irwin said in a statement that "we did everything possible
 with the knowledge available" in 1982 through 1984 to protect
 against receiving blood from people infected with the virus.
 And it said it has "contributed more than any other blood
 bank to the control of AIDS transmission by blood
 transfusion."
    About 200 such cases are pending nationwide.  Irwin, a
 nonprofit agency that supplies blood to about 40 Northern
 California hospitals, faces about 20 lawsuits.  In December,
 it became the first blood bank in the nation to lose an
 AIDS-related lawsuit when a jury decided on narrow technical
 grounds to award a young plaintiff $750,000 in damages.
    Blood banks are protected in every state from "product
 liability" suits charging they provided defective blood.
 Plaintiffs can prevail only by proving that the agencies were
 negligent in their practices.

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