Support truly
independent journalism
A contaminated blood scandal victim was told by doctors his wife needed to have an abortion due to the risk of infection.
Richard Warwick, 58, was infected with HIV and hepatitis B after receiving blood products at Treloar School in Hampshire as part of medical treatment for haemophilia, which he was diagnosed with at three years old.
After the government announced its plans for a compensation scheme on Friday, Mr Warwick revealed the devastating impact his diagnosis had had on his family’s lives.
In 1989 he and his partner were given a stark warning of the risks of ever conceiving after she fell pregnant, he told the BBC’s Today programme.
Have you been affected by the infected blood scandal? Email madeline.sherratt@independent.co.uk
“My wife and I were told in no uncertain terms that, ‘I’m sorry but you know, you can’t have the child because of the risk of HIV’,” Mr Warwick explained. “There was no medication. I was given two years to live.
“If a child was born was it going to die? Would it lose its father? That’s been the biggest impact on our lives as a couple.”
The level of compensation varies wildly between victims, with the highest around £2m. Mr Warwick branded the £15,000 he is being offered as “derisory and insulting”.
“I don’t know where they got the amount of £15,000 from, they seem to have plucked it from out of the air,” he said. “It’s insulting. Not only to the children that managed to live through what was done to them at the school, but also to the parents of the children that died – young teenagers and their wider families.
“How they’ve come up with this figure is beyond comprehension, to be honest.”
The Labour government has pledged lifelong support for patients given contaminated blood products between the 1970s and 1990s which led to them contracting viruses including hepatitis C and HIV.
Some 3,000 died as a result of the contaminated blood scandal. There will be additional £10,000 payments for patients who were victims of “unethical research”.
The Hampshire school Mr Warwick attended was originally established in 1908 to give disabled children a better chance of an education alongside any medical treatment. After it was discovered pupils had been given infected blood plasma, the NHS clinic at the school closed.
A spokesperson for the school said on Friday: “We’re glad to see the government pushing ahead with compensation payments for those who were infected and affected.”
In May, they said: “The inquiry’s report lays bare the full extent of this horrifying national scandal. We are deeply saddened that some of our former pupils were so tragically infected and their families affected and we expect the government to implement its compensation plans without further delay.”
