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Student blinded after blood donation gets compensation

Xinhua News Agency, January 7, 2012

• A college student who went blind in one eye after collapsing following a blood donation received a compensatory payment of 150,000 yuan (23,776 U.S. dollars) from a blood center in east China' s Zhejiang province, a local court said Friday.

  Xiao Jiahui, a 2011 graduate of the Hangzhou Normal Institute for Preschool Education, fainted and hit her head on a chair after donating blood in the city of Ningbo in 2010. Her injury left her blind in one eye.

  Xiao sued the blood center for compensation, demanding a total of 880,000 yuan. She said she spent more than 800,000 yuan on treatment for her enucleated eyeball.

  Although the Ningbo Central Blood Station did not agree that it should be responsible for the accident, the People's Court of Jiangdong District said in its verdict that Xiao's injury will have a "negative influence on her future life and work," and ordered the blood station to compensate Xiao.

  Xiao's father said he will appeal to a higher court, stating that the 150,000-yuan payment is not nearly enough to cover her medical expenses.

  The Ningbo Central Blood Station will offer some help to Xiao for her future treatment, said Zhou Jianlin, deputy director of the station.

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