Cry Bloody Murder:: A Tale of Tainted Blood

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention.

This book serves well as both the intimate story of a family whose lives have been profoundly altered by AIDS, and an expose of the events that allowed this deadly disease to invade them. While the average American probably believes, as I did until recently, that the infection of thousands of hemophiliacs with the AIDS virus was an unavoidable tragedy, DePrince uncovers the awful truth that for many, if not most, hemophiliacs, infection with AIDS and the deadly hepatitis C virus was not only avoidable, but that the government and hemophilia profiteers (like Bayer "The Aspirin People") chose not to act to produce a safer product in favor of bigger profits. DePrince also reminds us that the tragedy experienced by the hemophilia community isn't an isolated incident. Many millions of Americans are exposed to blood products each year, sometimes unknowingly, which means anyone at anytime could find themselves facing infection with HIV, HCV, or perhaps some unknown virus making its way into the blood supply today. Blood safety is an important issue to everyone - not just those who rely on blood products regularly. DePrince also advocates for the passage of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act which provides compassionate payments to victims of this disaster along with important improvements to blood safety. Read this book as if your life depended on it.

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

Every prospective parent should read this book. Every prospective patient should read this book. In short, YOU should read this book. In Cry Bloody Murder, Elaine DePrince retells the heartbreaking story of her familys struggle with bleeding disorders, AIDS and the drug companies whose products infected thousands with HIV. Of her five sons, two have died of AIDS and one is living with the disease. Both DePrince and her children have bleeding disorders; components of their blood, assigned to form clots, are missing. There is a spectrum of severity with such disorders. They are hereditary, and sometimes occur spontaneously within a generation. In Cry Bloody Murder, DePrince explains in detail the genetics, the medical history and treatment of bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and von Willebrand disease. Hemophilia effects men almost exclusively. During the mid-1960's, concentrated clotting factor products became available, extracted from the blood plasma of donors. The new products brought with them the hope of an easier, longer life for persons with hemophilia. They also carried all of the viruses coursing through the blood of the donors, including many forms of hepatitis. DePrince weaves back and forth between her family and the technical and historical. We fall in love with her sons. They become our brothers, our children and our friends. DePrince takes us on a journey through the happy times as well as the sad. Occasionally, one of her sons takes over the narrative. The means to eliminate the virus baggage were available in the 1970's. The companies manufacturing the product opted against using it. DePrince describes, in chilling detail, the process through which the United States Food and Drug Administration, the drug manufacturers and elected officials chose higher profits and convenience (for the manufacturers) over the human needs of the consumers. Many of the plasma donors were paid. Some donations were from prisons, and many from the poorest sections of society. The plasma was even imported from other nations. In the early 1980's, the hepatitis epidemic among hemophiliacs was joined with the AIDS epidemic. By the mid-1980's, the big majority of hemophiliacs in the United States were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. On June 2, 1993, Cubby DePrince returned from the hospital the last time. He was 11 years old. He was vomiting continuously during the ride. However, Cubby insisted on visiting a Bob's Big Boy restaurant along the highway, where he and his mother had stopped many times before. The waitresses and management knew Cubby and had been his friends through several years of monthly hospital trips. He got up from his wheelchair to say goodbye. On June 8, Cubby died at home. DePrince discusses the litigation and the legislative efforts on the part of the hemophilia community. In most states, the blood companies were shielded from product liability lawsuits. There is a continuin