Speaking in today’s Senedd Debate on the Infected Blood Inquiry Report, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood referred to infected blood victims in the region and highlighted the impact it has had on their lives.
Mr Isherwood said around 400 people in Wales are known to have been infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products, excluding those who died without it being known that they were infected, and that Haemophilia Wales state that 283 patients in Wales were infected with hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s, and over 70 people with haemophilia died in Wales alone.
He said:
“As the five-year inquiry stated, Infected Blood was not an accident and was avoidable, the truth had been hidden and victims had been repeatedly failed.
“Haemophilia Wales has asked me to speak about the Impact of Infected blood on North Wales constituent Jane Jones and her family.
“Jane Jones was infected with Hepatitis C through treatment for Von Willebrands Disease, a rare clotting disorder. Jane was not told about her infection.
“Her late mother Annona was also infected with Hepatitis C and both underwent Liver transplants due to Hepatitis C.
“Both maintained that they had never been informed about the risks of the treatment and were then not told about their infections.
"As Jane said in her statement to the inquiry: ‘Being infected with Hepatitis C is something you would not wish upon an animal’.
“A Denbighshire constituent, Rose Richards, has also written asking me to speak on her behalf in this debate.
“She is an affected person both as a Carrier of the Haemophilia gene and as a sister to a Haemophiliac brother who died of AIDS in 1990 aged 46 after receiving contaminated Factor VIII treatment in the early 1980s.
“She is also a Core Participant in the Infected Blood Inquiry and has submitted 2 written statements to it.
“She made a decision on whether to have children based on information that withheld the truth about the known risk of serious harm.
“Her sons, born in 1983 and 1985, both have Haemophilia. Fortunately neither required Factor VIII util it was a safer product in the late 1980s.
“As she states “however, the experiences of hearing of other parents losing their children have been harrowing now that we know the truth about the scandal”.
“She added that although Sir Brian Langstaff recommended that the current ongoing support payments under the Wales Infected Blood Support Scheme should continue for Infected persons and spouses or partners of Infected persons who have died, and Compensation should be paid in addition to the support payments, there has been no commitment to honour this.
“She concluded “as a group we are very concerned about any further Government delay. Victims continue to die at the rate of one every four days without justice”.
Mr Isherwood added:
“Speaking here in the 2017 Debate calling on the UK Government to hold a full public inquiry into the contaminated blood tragedy of the 1970s and 1980s, I quoted Monica Summers, whose husband, Paul, a contaminated blood bank victim, died on the 16th December 2008 aged 44. Their daughter was 5 years old.
“Monica said “Every day for 18 months she asked ‘when is daddy coming home?’ She turned 13 years in October and we both struggle.
“My husband didn’t have a choice, it was made for him and he lost his life because of decisions taken by others. Yet over 30 years later we are still trying to get some agreement.
“Please let the next decisions be made by voices of people who are currently suffering with HIV and Hepatitis C, by the widows and families left behind trying to heal and build a new normal life.” Their daughter will now be 20.
“As I said then ‘contaminated blood has had – and continues to have – a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of infected people and their families’.”
