A LIMERICK woman infected with hepatitis C is taking High Court action challenging a damages award made by the Government's compensation tribunal.
The mother of 11 children is appealing against the tribunal's refusal of her application for £245,000 to pay for home help services for the rest of her life.
The tribunal reduced her claim for domestic help to £35,000, which works out at £33 per week for the next 20 years. It also awarded her £140,000 in general damages, £25,000 for loss of earnings and £5,000 for nursing care. She rejected this settlement.
Her case is the first legal challenge against a damages award by the hepatitis C compensation tribunal since it was set up in September 1995 to compensate people infected by contaminated blood.
The 46 year old woman contracted hepatitis C from an injection of contaminated anti D in 1978. The virus caused a malfunction of her immune system and her life expectancy is now 20 years. She will remain unable to work.
In evidence to the tribunal in July, her consultant hepatologist gave evidence that she would require a full time housekeeper for the next 20 years at an estimated cost of £245,000.
The tribunal chairman Mr Justice Seamus Egan, said that the evidence given regarding her claim for a home help was exaggerated. The judgment said that her claim ignored the fact that her need for child care would decline as her children grew up. It said that the children would also be increasingly able to assist her in the home as they grew older.
In early August, the High Court granted the woman a judicial review of the tribunal's award. She wants her case returned to the tribunal for reassessment. At next week's High Court hearing, a date will be set for the judicial review.
The total amount of awards made by the tribunal to date is about £15 1/2 million.