The widow of a heath care worker who died from complications related to
his hepatitis C is entitled to benefits despite the fact that the man
received a blood transfusion in 1970 that his employer argued could have
given him the disease, the Missouri Court of Appeals has ruled.
Stephen Smith worked for Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson
City, Missouri, as a medical laboratory technician from 1969 until March
2006, court records show.
Mr. Smith and other health care
workers didn't wear protective equipment while handling blood and human
tissue before safety measures were implemented in the 1980s or 1990s,
according to court records. They also used a narrow glass straw, known
as a pipette, to prepare blood slides by placing one end in a tube of
blood and sucking on the other end to draw blood into it, records show.
Read more... Labels: Disability & Benefits, transmission-prevention, workers compensation, workplace