Leukemia sufferer given contaminated blood during treatment

Fay Brown will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to know if she has Malaria. Photo / Supplied

An investigation is under way after a cancer sufferer was given blood with traces of malaria when receiving a routine blood transfusion.

Fay Brown received the transfusion a week ago as part of her leukaemia treatment.

Within days she was told the blood tested positive for a malaria antibody, meaning the donor may have had the infection in the past.

Although further tests showed the malaria parasite wasn't found in the blood, she faces an anxious wait until she is given the all-clear.

The New Zealand Blood Service said nothing like it had ever happened before and has promised to find out how it happened.

"The doctor came in on Wednesday and said I've got bad news," Mrs Brown said from her hospital bed.

The 62-year-old is in Auckland City Hospital being treated for dehydration connected to the leukaemia.

She normally received treatment there but had the blood transfusion at Middlemore Hospital because as it is closer to her Papatoetoe home.

Yesterday she had blood samples taken and has been told she will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to know if she has the disease.

"The waiting game is on now. Waiting to see if I have contracted it or not. They seem to think I have ... It's definitely the last thing I need."

Doctors told her there was a 10-day incubation period before it can be known for sure if she has malaria. She said the agonising wait had made a stressful time even worse. Her husband was with her on Wednesday night when she was told.

"They came in on Wednesday night and said [the blood] had malaria. My husband was visiting, thank goodness. They just came in and said, sorry, bad news for you. One of the bags of blood I got, the donor had been in a country with malaria. The blood was tested and it came out positive." The news left her "absolutely shattered. My husband wanted to go and shoot someone ... I just couldn't believe it. So many things have gone wrong during the last year".

Mrs Brown said people who received transfers were told there was a 1 per cent chance [of contamination] but she never expected a disease like malaria would make it through the screening process.

She said there should be stronger procedures put in place to stop infected blood

" I said to my husband, we have to be thankful it wasn't HIV or anything like that."

Mrs Brown developed leukaemia seven years ago. She worked fulltime until she had a bone marrow transplant in May last year. In July, she was sent to hospital for an infection and seizure and ended up back there in November with pneumonia.

"It's been an eventful year ... And then for this to get thrown on me. I said to the doctor someone is trying to kill me off."

But she is determined to think positive. "I haven't dared ask what the treatment [for malaria] is. I'm trying to think positive that I won't get it ... But you don't know if it's going to happen."

A spokeswoman for Middlemore Hospital said there was an issue with the blood but the hospital received the blood from the New Zealand blood transfusion service "on good faith".

The Blood Service said it acknowledged a unit of blood was "inappropriately transfused to a patient", and apologised for any distress caused.

Medical director Dr Peter Flanagan said the likelihood of the blood containing the malaria parasite was very small, as was the risk to Mrs Brown. An investigation was under way to identify measures to ensure it did not happen again.

By the time the error was identified the blood had already been transfused.

"A member of the Blood Service medical team then spoke to the clinician responsible for the patient and apologised for the error."

The risk of contracting malaria was very low but should be considered if Mrs Brown developed an unexplained fever.

Dr Flanagan said no other patients had been put at risk.