Former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross Dr Roger Perrault, accused of criminal negligence that resulted in thousands of Canadians contracting HIV and hepatitis C virus, has been adjudged fit to be tried by a Toronto judge.
So far, he was evading prosecution on the grounds of ill health and had begged the court to withdraw the charges because he was suffering from severe cardiac difficulties.
But Justice Mary Lou Benotto deemed the 68-year-old doctor, who suffered the first cardiac arrest in 1980, fit to stand trial for medical fiasco, which arose due to contaminated blood products being distributed to patients.
About a 1,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and almost 20,000 contracted the hepatitis C virus after receiving these products in the 1980s. By 1997, about 3,000 of these haemophilia patients lost their lives due to diseases contracted after the infections.
Perrault, who was responsible for blood transfusions, not only failed to prevent donations from HIV-positive donors, but also did not adequately test the blood products for the viruses before administering them to the patients. Armour Pharmaceutical Company and three other medical practitioners are also defendants in the case.
Defence counsel Eddie Greenspan pleaded that the strains of the trial, which is likely to last 13 months, might prove fatal for Perrault, who suffers from a very weak heart and has undergone several cardiac surgeries.
But a cardiologist who examined the doctor testified that he did not face any substantial health dangers. The trial for the medical disaster, considered one of the worst in Canada, would commence in November.
