Meet Nina
Nina was born in 1983 as the youngest daughter in a military family. Her premature birth at twenty-eight weeks facilitated the need for a blood transfusion six weeks thereafter. Physicians authorized a transfer from the civilian birth hospital in San Jose, California to an Army hospital in San Francisco. It was at the San Francisco hospital that she became HIV positive. Her twin sister, having stayed longer in San Jose, would remain HIV negative. Years later, her Transfusion Look Back Case would reshape policies in the military. Her Navy father alleged that the military failed to execute proper notification procedures. The transfusion occurred August 3, 1983, but revelations about her health condition emerged through an accidental pre-operative test on December 3, 1991. She underwent eye surgery the following day and was assumed to be HIV negative. Nina’s parents went to the hospital December 11, 1991 and learned that their daughter faced one of the most-feared illnesses of the decade. At such a young age, they wondered how this could have happened to her? It was this question that the Department of Defense investigation sought to answer. Results of the investigation showed that the military had known of her transfusion-acquired HIV infection since October 1989. “The military knew about my HIV two years before I ever received a diagnosis. A notification that takes two years is certainly not timely as the prevailing rules mandated. As it was, my diagnosis was not a proper notification but pure accident,” says Nina. The pivotal change to the Department of Defense’s Blood Look Back program requires a practice of non-closure in the event a recipient cannot be located. Those case files were subject to premature closure before the review, but now are labeled “inactive.” A single attempt at notification in January 1990 became her misfortune when the caseworkers never followed up on her Look Back Case. The notifying letter was sent to Hawaii when her family resided near New Orleans. Caseworkers closed her file and she would not have known were it not for the accidental test. The second piece of military health protocol pertains to the hospital where she had been tested for HIV. Patients fifteen and older receive paperwork for HIV testing at this hospital. According to prevailing hospital memorandum, pediatric patients under fifteen pose negligible risk of contracting HIV. As a result, the paperwork given to these patients does not include anything with regards to an HIV antibody test. Fortunately, even though she was under fifteen, being eight, someone mistakenly issued her the adult packet containing the slip for HIV testing. This pending test was unknown to the surgeon so he operated the next day. The new memorandum requires a signature indicating consent to be tested and refusal/acceptance of counseling. Nina never signed any such paperwork. Those tested must be at least fifteen years of age or be in a high-risk category according to the new memorandum. Before, age was the only discriminating factor for HIV testing. Too bad HIV doesn’t discriminate; we might have a better grasp on the epidemic.
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