HIV infected couple to receive compensation from state

If the civil case brought by an un-named married couple is successful, the government is expected to have to pay up to zl. 400,000 plus benefits and compensation for negligence. The trial concerns the case of an HIV infected man who was not informed of his status for four years due to administrative inefficiency. In 1996 the man and his wife donated blood to a relative in a southern Polish hospital. Unfortunately, in routine blood tests the man was identified as being HIV positive but remained unaware of the fact for four years as the letter bearing the news, along with a request for consultations, was never delivered but was instead returned to the blood donor center with an "addressee unknown" note where it remained. The husband, oblivious of his illness, subsequently infected his wife. "I was infected by my husband. We could have avoided that, as doctors were aware that my husband was HIV positive," the woman stated during the first phase of the recently concluded trial. The Rzeszow regional court is expected to return a verdict on November 27. According to Rafal Cieslicki, the plenipotentiary of the defendant in the trial, nobody was directly responsible for the tragedy. "It was just a sad set of circumstances," he said. (Zycie, p. 6) J.K.