The Casoria branch of the Court of Naples has sentenced the Ministry of Health to a maxi compensation of more than one million euros to the family of D.L. In 1985, the man, then 47, was admitted to the Orthopedic Trauma Center because of a fractured femur and underwent a transfusion. Fifteen years later he discovered he had contracted hepatitis C, a virus that eventually led to his death after much suffering in June 2015. For family members, the hepatitis C was allegedly caused by an infected blood bag. An argument now accepted by the judges: the Ministry will have to pay more than 171,000 euros each to the man's wife (who was 77 years old at the time of his death) and the couple's four children (who, again in 2018, ranged in age from 51 to 43), as well as another 195,000 euros as terminal biological damage and catastrophic damage. Altogether more than one million euros, in addition to interest expenses, professional fees for the attorney who handled the case, and for the Court Appointed Expert Witness.
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