Martin Gaffney

Martin Francis Gaffney (January 17, 1949 – November 1, 1991) was an American man who successfully sued the United States Government for causing the death of his wife Mutsuko Gaffney, one son, and eventually himself by infecting them with HIV after Mutsuko got a blood transfusion at a Naval Hospital in 1981.

Background

Martin Gaffney was born in Massachusetts United States in 1949. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1975 in Lowell, Massachusetts and would eventually rise to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer (CWO4).

In 1978 on the Japanese island of Okinawa, Martin met Mutsuko Kuniyoshi. In late 1980 Mutsuko became pregnant with the couple's first child. On March 7, 1981 she and Martin married.

Stillbirth of son and Wife's infection with AIDS

It was in September 1981 that Mutsuko Gaffney went to Long Beach Naval Hospital. In spite of her saying she felt labor pains, medical personnel sent the mother home on several different occasions over a span of 5+ weeks. On or around the 6th week past Mutsuko's due date, she returned to the hospital. It was during testing that it was discovered the baby Mutsuko was carrying no longer had a heartbeat. Naval doctors performed a caesarian section but it was too late for the baby boy Mutsuko was carrying. As a result of the operation, Mutsuko was given a transfusion of two units of blood.

Years later it was discovered that one of the blood donors had been discharged from the United States Navy for homosexual activity. The other donor tested negative for HIV. At the time of Mutsuko Gaffney's transfusion, there weren't any blood screening tests for the virus. It was also learned the donors had donated blood the day before Mutsuko Gaffney's caesarian section was performed.^[1] It is highly probable she wouldn't have become infected with HIV if Navy doctors had treated her and the unborn child she was carrying in a more timely manner.

AIDS diagnosis and Federal lawsuit

In 1983 and 1985 Mutsuko Gaffney gave birth again. First to a daughter named Maureene and then a son named John. John was a sickly child and tests were done to find out why. It was discovered John had AIDS, and had gotten it from his mother who also tested positive for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Mr. Gaffney recalled the reaction of his wife, to the news she had AIDS. Mutsuko turned to the doctor and asked for enough sleeping pills to commit suicide, he said.^[2]

John Gaffney died at the age of thirteen months in August 1986. Mutsuko Gaffney died of AIDS on May 31, 1987.

Maureene Gaffney was tested for HIV but the results were negative.

Martin Gaffney tested positive for HIV but showed no symptoms yet when he filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the federal government in 1988.^[3] In April 1989 a federal court ruled in Martin Gaffney's favor. U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel stating "infection with a communicable disease was a foreseeable consequence of administering blood to a patient even in 1981."^[4]

Martin Gaffney was awarded 3.8 million dollars by a jury but the Federal government was initially slow in paying the judgment. By 1991 Martin Gaffney had come down with lymphoma. On October 10, 1991 the Federal government decided not to appeal the judgment.^[5] Less than a month later, Martin Gaffney died in a Boston Massachusetts hospital.^[6]

After the death of her father, Maureene Gaffney went to live with her father's brother.

See also

Elizabeth Glaser, like Mutsuko Gaffney, got infected via a tainted blood transfusion and had a child contract HIV from his mother in utero.

References

External links

• Martin Gaffney at Find a Grave