A married woman who was alleged to have been falsely diagnosed as HIV positive at the Battor Catholic Hospital in the Volta Region has filed a writ at Ho High Court seeking damages from the hospital.
Madam Elizabeth Dickson said in her writ, that in July 2001, she reported at the hospital with a complaint of fibroid. She was made to surrender her blood samples and other specimen for blood pre-treatment test and visited the hospital several times for checks and pre-treatment diagnosis.
It was during one of such visits that the doctor in charge of her case referred her to a senior nursing sister for counselling on her state of health.
She said the nursing sister told her that she was HIV positive. ''I was dazed and was unable to comprehend all those pieces of advice'', Mad Dickson said in the statement that she broke the news to her husband but this led to the collapse of her marriage because her husband deserted the matrimonial home.
She said for fear of stigmatization, she left Ashaiman and took refuge in a village in the Central Region and her health deteriorated with the fibroid also worsening. And when she could no more endure her condition she called back to the Battor Hospital to seek remedy for her fibroid sometime last year.
It was upon this visit that the authorities informed her that she was not HIV positive and that the blood sample that was originally attributed to her was not her sample. The statement said such unpardonable professional negligence had made her to suffer mental trauma, stress and high apprehension of death with its social stigma for over a year.
In the statement of defence filed on behalf of the hospital the defendant admitted that the plaintiff attended the hospital in July 2001 but denied the claim that she complained of fibroid.
The defence said the plaintiff was requested by the doctor to see a senior nursing officer but denied the claim that she was to be counselled pertaining to her state of health.
The defence said as part of the hospital's general routine for HIV tests, patients were always advised that the hospital's test could only be confirmed after the patient's blood sample had been sent to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for confirmation.
''It is only after the result that the patient is told that he/she is HIV positive or not''. No date has been fixed for hearing of the case.
