A doctor giving evidence yesterday disputed allegations made by the family of a man who died of a HIV-related illness that he had not been told for seven years of his infection.
Dr Paule Cotter said the deceased, who was referred to as Noel, had been tested for HIV in 1985, and she was sure he was told later that year that the test results were positive.
She said sometimes when people got bad news they went into a state of denial and blanked it out.
Her evidence was interrupted when a brother of the dead man interjected from the public gallery to disagree with her testimony.
The brother, who gave evidence to the tribunal last December, stood up and made a comment about Dr Cotter's evidence. He said he was a brother of Noel, who had died in 1999, and he was walking out.
He had told the tribunal in December that he himself had hepatitis C. Another of his brothers gave evidence under the pseudonym Owen last May and he also has hepatitis C. All are haemophiliacs who contracted their infections from contaminated blood products.
Counsel for Prof Ian Temperley, Mr Brian McGovern SC, suggested to the chairwoman, Judge Alison Lindsay, that the outburst should not be reported by the media.
Later, after a short break, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Gerard Durcan SC, said the man had tendered an apology and accepted his intervention was inappropriate. Judge Lindsay accepted the apology.
Earlier a letter written by Dr Cotter in 1992 which referred to the fact that Noel appeared not to realise he was HIV positive was opened to the tribunal. Dr Cotter said that could just have been his impression. She believed he was told in late 1985, but there was no record of this.
Dr Cotter, a consultant haematologist at Cork University Hospital, said efforts were also made to contact Noel once he went to England. But this was not to give him test results but to ensure he got follow-up treatment.
Counsel also questioned Dr Cotter about her care of a young man with the pseudonym Garret. A letter produced to the tribunal showed she wrote to his GP in 1985 saying he was HIV negative, when in fact he had tested positive.
Dr Cotter said she was obviously mistaken and she was sorry.
Later it emerged that she had based the letter on a handwritten list of her patients' HIV test results. The list had been inaccurate. She accepted this was an unsatisfactory situation.
Garret gave evidence to the tribunal last May and said he discovered he was HIV positive only when he found a letter written to his parents. Asked about this, Dr Cotter said his parents were adamant he should not be told until after he did his Leaving Cert.
Garret also claimed in evidence that his parents were not told of his infection until 1990, and his mother was only told by chance when Dr Cotter bumped into her in a hospital corridor.
Mr Durcan put this allegation to Dr Cotter. She said she believed she told his mother the results of the test in 1985. However, she had no distinct recollection of this.