12-Year-Old Gets HIV After Receiving Infected Blood From Hospital; More Children Affected, Inquiry Reveals

A British boy was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while undergoing treatment for his rare blood disorder, an inquiry heard.

Andrew Haddock was treated with clotting agent Factor VIII for his hemophilia starting from the age of 11 while he was a patient at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the Daily Mail reported.

He was among the children who in the 1970s and 1980s received blood-clotting products imported from the U.S. that were later found to be contaminated with HIV and hepatitis.

Haddock died in 1996 at the age of 24 after reportedly being infected with HIV as a result of his treatment. He was also infected with hepatitis C.

Prior to his death, doctors allegedly warned that the Factor VIII being given to Haddock was causing reactions in some children.

However, the boy’s mother, Brenda Haddock, claimed she was told that she “had nothing to worry about,” an independent inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal was told.

“In those days we all believed in doctors, we put our faith in doctors. We had a child with an ongoing account, we followed what the doctors said. We blindly carried on giving them the treatment,” Brenda, 73, told the Infected Blood Inquiry in London.

“But I wonder, afterward, why couldn’t they just temporarily stop the Factor VIII treatment while they investigated exactly what was going on, and give us some more information? Why did we have to sort of blindly carry on?” the mother from Birmingham added.

Brenda accidentally discovered her son was HIV positive after looking through his medical notes, The Times reported.

She also found out that Dr. Frank Hill, a consultant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, gave Andrew the diagnosis when he was 12 without his parents’ knowledge, the blood contamination scandal inquiry heard.

“I was disgusted. Finding out that Andrew had been dealing with the news of his diagnosis alone shed new light on the recent change in his behavior, as it was just before I found out he was HIV positive that he became withdrawn and stopped trying at school,” Brenda said in a statement.

The mother said that because some of her son’s treatment had been done at home, “there’s the guilt of having some home treatment and me giving Andrew the Factor VIII at home.”

“Did I administer the dose that infected him? It’s quite possible,” Brenda said.

More than 2,400 people have died as a result of the United Kingdom’s contaminated blood scandal, The Guardian reported.

The inquiry into it is still ongoing.