Posted on 07/18/2005 4:08:00 PM PDT by Clive
TORONTO (CP) - The unrelenting stress that would arise from a year-long criminal trial could threaten the life of the doctor at the centre of the tainted blood disaster that left thousands infected with HIV and hepatitis C, his lawyer argued in court Monday.
Eddie Greenspan said a trial of this magnitude would elevate stress levels for Dr. Roger Perrault, the former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross, and could spark another heart attack - one that could be fatal.
Perrault, 68, suffered his first heart attack in 1980, and from there underwent a series of operations, including angioplasty to unblock a coronary artery, bypass surgery and emergency surgery for an aneurysm, Greenspan said.
Perrault has since changed his lifestyle, including scaling back on his workload and travel, and taking daily afternoon naps, Greenspan added.
"He lives a quiet life and has for the last seven years," Greenspan told Justice Mary Lou Benotto. "Avoidance of stress has been an important part of his routine."
Greenspan pushed for an application Monday to stay charges against Perrault laid in 2002 after an RCMP investigation into the blood scandal, considered to be one of the worst public health disasters to strike Canada in the last century. If approved, the charges would effectively be withdrawn without presenting evidence.
Perrault faces four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of common nuisance endangering the public.
A trial would last about 13 months and would require about one million pages of documents to be sifted through, further burdening Perrault's health, Greenspan said.
"He knows he's going through a long and arduous process."
Greenspan cited articles in the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, two widely respected publications in the health profession, that backed up claims that stress could contribute to coronary problems.
He also referred to previous testimony by Dr. Alan Leach, Perrault's cardiologist at Ottawa Civic Hospital, who said further surgeries could be dangerous for Perrault.
"There's really no more operations for him. He's reached the end of that road," Greenspan said.
But Crown lawyer Trevor Shaw argued that Perrault's condition has stabilized, presenting a graph to the court that showed his cholesterol and blood pressure levels have regained control in recent years, and that his pulse rate of 60 was the same as it was 25 years ago.
Shaw also said despite assertions of declining travel, Perrault continued business trips to Montreal.
"He leads an active, professional life, not one that is stress-free," Shaw said, later dismissing Leach's testimony because he couldn't pin down how much Perrault's stress levels would rise during a trial.
The hearing for the motion to stay proceedings continues Tuesday.
Perrault, three other doctors and New Jersey-based Armour Pharmaceutical Co. are accused of allegedly allowing an HIV-infected blood-clotting product to be given to hemophilia patients in the 1980s and early 1990s.
It's alleged that Perrault and other officials with the Red Cross and Health Canada failed to screen blood products and take adequate measures to prevent people infected with HIV-AIDS from donating blood.
More than 1,000 Canadians became infected with blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others contracted hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood products.
It's not clear how many people have lost their lives to tainted blood, but 3,000 people died by 1997.
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My Bloodhounds list is incomplete.
Hmmm, this doc is concerned about stress .....yet he subjected many to stress, as well as potential loss of life, through criminal neglect and lack of professionalism. Why should anyone care about him?
NOTE: Bill Clintoon was DIRECTLY INVOLVED in this tainted blood (from Arkansas) scandal
WHERE IS THE MAIN STREAM MEADIA ON THIS STORY (only 10-15 years old.... any day now...)
I just thought of that. This is still going on???? No one is in jail?
Clinton got away with it, too, didn't he? They're just waiting for this old doctor to die so Clinton is as free as a bird in this matter. No more witnesses.
He could always avoid the stress of trial by pleading guilty.
Guess there's only one thing to do... call the Waaaaaaahmbulance!
(And maybe ping alamo-girl to yet another Clinton Legacy item.)
All I can say is, if they were tasked (and paid) with protecting the public blood supply and failed, either willingly for profit/political reasons or through incompetence, then a heart attack is mild retribution considering the horrible deaths their truly innocent victims suffered.
If anyone remembers the story different and I have erred, please correct this post.
BUMP for old Clinton scandle update.
Clinton and a financial partner authorized Arkansas prisoner blood to be sold to Canada, with no HIV status testing, knowing that some of it was tainted.
That sounds 'bout right to me, thanks for the refresh.
Sorry, but I'm watching the RedSox, working off a slow bedside laptop, and didn't feel like getting up to do the research.
If those are the facts, then I say inject them with the blood they sold.
Thank you. I knew it was dirty, and bad blood was being shipped on Clinton's orders.
I'm requesting that Mia put up her documentation on this scandal, which was called "Blood Money" in a book by that name, if I recall correctly.
Filthy, killing business.
Clinton was thought to be on the take from the scheme, but was not involved in management. Blood plasma was drawn from prisoners, yes. Nobody cared one little bit if it was clean or not. It could be sold for good money, and was -- through all six of Clinton's gubernatorial terms. Inmates were put under strong pressure and bribed with drugs to donate plasma.
Clinton's job was political cover -- protecting the scheme and keeping it afloat with the legislature and health officials.
The book was titled BLOOD TRAIL. Mia T had nothing to do with it.
You're correct, of course, and I see that I carelessly phrased my post. Sorry--I didn't mean to.
I recalled Mia's extensive documentation on this scandal, and I simply wanted to ping her to post the blood scandal information here.
Again, I'm sorry for my error.
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