Needle stick HIV compensation battle drags on
A Durban nurse says she is still battling to be compensated properly after she contracted HIV 13 years ago from a needle stick injury to her left thumb while attending to a patient at the private hospital where she worked, says a report in The Mercury. The nurse claims the hospital’s insurer, the Compensation Fund, deemed that she was only 15% disabled, and paid her accordingly, and is now rejecting her appeals to reconsider because of her declining health and inability to work. The fund has launched an application in the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg), seeking an order declaring that it has fulfilled all its obligations to her. But the nurse, with the assistance of Durban’s Legal Resources Centre, is fighting back. The matter is pending before the court.
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