TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — One of Taiwan's best regarded hospitals says it transplanted organs from an HIV carrier into five patients in what appears to be one of the most serious examples of medical negligence in the island's modern history.
A National Taiwan University Hospital official in Taipei said Monday that the five are now being treated with anti-AIDS drugs.
In a posting on its website over the weekend, the hospital said the mistake occurred because a transplant staffer believed that the English word "reactive" on the donor's standard HIV test meant negative instead of positive.
The hospital added that the information on the test result was given over the telephone and was not double-checked, as required by standard operating procedures.
