A drug dealing gran is being chased by prosecutors to repay more than £45,000.
14.01.2022 - 20:39 / dailyrecord.co.uk
A Scots woman has spoken of her horror after discovering she contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion she received 25 years ago.
Pamela Pennycook, who suffers from spina bifida, underwent spinal fusion surgery when she was 11-years-old at Edinburgh's Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in July 1980.
Unknown to Pamela and her parents, she received a transfusion of three pints of blood.
It wasn't until 25 years later when she was diagnosed with Osteoporosis in December 2005 that she would find out the blood she received was contaminated.
Pamela, now 52, from Edinburgh, said she was stunned when a doctor's receptionist told her over the phone her blood tests were positive for hepatitis C.
The virus infects the liver and can cause life-threatening damage.
She said: "I phoned the doctor's receptionist for the results and she said ‘Oh yes, you're Hep C positive’.
"I was really taken aback. There was a long pause and then she said ‘I shouldn't have told you that.’. “At that time I was living at home with my parents and had to tell them about my diagnosis.
"Naturally they asked ‘how did you get it?’ And I said ‘well either contaminated bloods in the 80s, intravenous drug use or tattoos’. "My mum and dad were never told that I had a blood transfusion as a child nor did they consent to me receiving a blood transfusion. "So, at that point, they said ‘but you've never had a transfusion and you don't have any tattoos'."
“There was a lot of stigma around my diagnosis, it felt like a dirty secret.”
She was referred to Edinburgh's Western General where she was first seen at the infectious diseases unit in February 2006.
Tragically, the diagnosis came shortly before Pamela found out she was pregnant in December 2005.
She was forced to
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