
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990                   TAG: 9004270884
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/9   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NAVAL HOSPITAL BLAMED FOR FAMILY'S AIDS TRAGEDY

AIDS had no name in 1981. But that year the virus that causes the disease was present in blood Matsuko Gaffney received in a transfusion at a Navy hospital.

In time the disease killed her and her son and infected her husband, a Marine officer, and a federal judge ruled Thursday that government negligence was to blame.

U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel found that Matsuko Gaffney had to have the transfusion because doctors failed to perform a Caesarean section when she was two weeks late in delivering her first child in September 1981.

Though AIDS was unknown at the time, Zobel ruled that "infection with a communicable disease was a foreseeable consequence of administering blood to a patient even in 1981." AIDS was identified as a disease in September 1982.

Zobel's ruling lets Chief Warrant Officer Martin Gaffney seek compensation from the federal government. The judge ordered a second trial to determine damages for Gaffney and his daughter, Maureene, on whose behalf the government was sued for $55 million two years ago.

Maureene, who is 6, is the only family member not infected by the virus.

Gaffney's lawsuit claimed Dr. John Yeast, an obstetrician at the Long Beach Naval Hospital in California, mishandled Matsuko Gaffney's pregnancy by failing to perform a caesarean section when the birth was overdue.

The baby eventually was stillborn and its mother became infected and lost blood. It was then that she received the contaminated blood.

Gaffney, 40, who is still in good health and working, said he never doubted Zobel would rule in his favor.

"I'm just surprised it took this long for the decision. It's obviously very good news," Gaffney said. "I just wish my wife had heard this before she left this world."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marianne Bowler, who represented the government in the case, did not return requests for comment. Susan Hicks Spurlock, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, refused to comment while the second trial is pending.

Navy Lt. Bruce Williams, a spokesman at the Pentagon, said the Navy could not comment on the ruling until the judge's decision had been reviewed.

The Long Beach Naval Hospital no longer has an obstetrics department and the doctor named in the case could not be located Thursday.

by CNB