Tragic Outcome of a Contaminated Blood Transfusion: A Family's Legal Victory

It was 1985 when D.L., 47 years old, underwent a blood transfusion at the orthopedic trauma center (CTO) in Naples due to a femur fracture. Fifteen years later, he discovered he was suffering from the hepatitis C virus, leading to his death, after terrible suffering, in June 2015. For the relatives, hepatitis C would have been caused by a bag of infected blood. A thesis now accepted by the detached section of Casoria of the Naples court, which with a recent sentence has condemned the Ministry of Health to pay over 171,000 euros to the man's wife and the couple's four children, in addition to another 195,000 euros as terminal biological damage and catastrophic damage. The story concerning D.L., a citizen of Mugnano di Napoli, starts from being hospitalized for a femur fracture, for which he underwent a blood transfusion in 1985 at the CTO, blood that was later - according to the court's thesis - infected by the hepatitis C virus. In 2000 D.L. discovered to have developed the hepatic virus, to die at the age of 77 due to complications linked to liver cirrhosis. "The relatives," explains their lawyer, Piervittorio Tione, "decided to sue the Neapolitan court to obtain the condemnation of the Ministry of Health to the payment of compensation under a dual aspect: for the so-called 'jure hereditario' damage (i.e., the physical and moral damages that belonged to the transfused subject and then transferred, by virtue of his death, to the heirs) and for the so-called 'jure proprio' damage, i.e., non-pecuniary moral damage that belongs to the closest relatives (spouse and children) who see the relationship with their loved one end in a traumatic way." The legal process concluded in recent days, when the section of the Naples court, chaired by judge Maria Rosaria Giugliano, recognized the guilt of the Ministry of Health. As lawyer Tione further explains: "the case of D.L.'s heirs is particular, as they managed to prove that there was a link-connection between the blood transfusion undergone in 1985, the onset and diagnosis of hepatitis, the evolution into cirrhosis and the death; to condemn the Ministry of Health for omission of control over the blood; to condemn the Ministry to the compensation of damages (physical and moral) that belonged to D.L.; to condemn the Ministry to the payment of damages precisely for the loss of the affectionate-family relationship." For the victim's family lawyer: "Now, having won the case, which certainly will not return their loved one to the family, but which once again sanctions the serious and exclusive responsibility of the State for the many deaths from infected blood, comes the most arduous task: to push the Ministry to pay what has been rightfully obtained in front of a court in relatively short times."