The Legal Aid Board has come to the assistance of a 13-year-old boy who was apparently infected with HIV during a blood transfusion at the Pretoria Academic Hospital last year.
The board’s Witbank representative, Rodney Mashego, met the boy’s mother, Francis Stoop, to obtain details of the case in order to provide her with legal advice, it said on Friday.
Stoop earlier indicated she would obtain legal advice on the liability of the hospital and the national blood transfusion service. She said she had no money to pay for her son, Johan’s, antiretroviral treatment — estimated to cost R900 a month.
The board gave no details of the meeting, but said: ”A number of possibilities will have to be investigated in terms of culpability and ongoing responsibility.
”The best possible legal advice will be harnessed by the Legal Aid Board to ensure that justice is applied appropriately.” A legal expert said earlier this week liability would arise only if negligence was proven.
Stoop, from Bethal in Mpumalanga, is believed to have been infected with HIV when he received a blood transfusion in October after an operation to his right leg. – Sapa