The doctor who persuaded a woman to have her son treated with imported clotting agents admitted yesterday to not telling her of the risks involved, which included the risk that he would contract HIV or hepatitis C.
Prof Ian Temperley, former director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, told the tribunal that the pros and cons of treatment would not have been outlined to patients at the time. They would today, he said.
Questioned by counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Finlay SC, on this point, he said the mother of the boy was entitled to have been told about the risks.
The woman involved gave evidence to the tribunal in December using the pseudonym Jackie. Her son, who is referred to by the pseudonym Rory, contracted HIV and hepatitis C and died in 1995, aged 22.
Jackie said the first time her son received imported concentrate was in August 1983 when she was persuaded to allow his treatment to be changed from a safer clotting agent known as cryoprecipitate which was Irish-made. She was reluctant to have her son prescribed concentrate which could be administered at home because she had a phobia about needles, she said.
Prof Temperley said he believed Rory's first dose of concentrate was in January 1980. But he did not get concentrate again until 1983.
Counsel asked if he had a policy on the use of concentrates at the time and who should be given them. Prof Temperley said he didn't think he had a "determined policy" until later.
Mr Finlay put it to Prof Temperley that he had earlier suggested he abided by standards and policies laid down in the UK. He asked why then a decision was made to change Rory's treatment to concentrates in 1983 at a time when UK treaters were saying this should not be done to protect previously untreated patients from the danger of products made from large donor pools.
Prof Temperley said Rory's was a unique case. The patient got regular treatment with cryoprecipitate but his condition was deteriorating. He felt it was "fairly essential" he be put on concentrate. He added that HIV was infrequent at the time in haemophiliacs and he believed he was making the right clinical decision.
"We did a great deal for Rory. Over the years an enormous amount of effort was put into him. I don't think it was a question of us being thoughtless about how we managed him and how we cared for him.
"I think we put everything into him. We did the best we could and in the days that were in it I probably did not tell his mother the pros and cons of the treatment, I felt it was essential to go on," he said.