# Can lawsuits really go this far? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 24, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412 "2004-11-24T03:19:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThatGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@ThatGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/21 "2004-11-24T18:45:14Z")
Of course the thought of scenario 2 crossed my mind and the minds of my family, but out of good respectability i cannot make those accusations after he has completely denied that possibility. So while i am not 100% certain, i have no choice but to support them. If he is telling the truth then the recent blood transfusion my aunt received seems to be the only logical explanation seeing as how i know she would never take part in any behavior that could lead to it. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/22 "2004-11-24T18:51:51Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Can I open up a huge can of worms? > > Disclaimer up front: My prejudices here reflect ONLY how I view the risk factors. > > Scenario 1 : Aunt receives infected blood transfusion in a hospital that the media hasn’t picked up on. She transmits disease to uncle. > > Scenario 2 : Your uncle is on the “down low”, received the disease through a common form of transmission, and transferred it to your aunt through another common form of transmission. > > It’s just that that two events that happened in Scenario 1 for your aunt and uncle to get the disease are, respectively, very unlikely, and quite unlikely (yes, I said that female-male transmission through hetero-sexual sex is “quite unlikely”. Great Debate it somewhere else, or check cecil’s archives.) > > And, in scenario 2, well maybe not so much. This puzzled me too… do people still really get HIV from blood tranfusions these days? Anyway, I decided to post a thread in general questions asking this: [Do people still get HIV through blood transfusions?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=288402) ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/23 "2004-11-24T19:04:05Z")
The reason your insurance company knows it was an accident is because the ICD-9-CM codes for external injury or illness begin either with 8 or 9. This trips their computer to inquire about third-party liability. If there is none, just say so on the form and be done with it. Robin ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/24 "2004-11-24T19:13:49Z")
> [@ThatGuy](#): > > Of course the thought of scenario 2 crossed my mind and the minds of my family, but out of good respectability i cannot make those accusations after he has completely denied that possibility. So while i am not 100% certain, i have no choice but to support them. If he is telling the truth then the recent blood transfusion my aunt received seems to be the only logical explanation seeing as how i know she would never take part in any behavior that could lead to it. Shouldn’t they be able to ascertain this by going back to the donor(s) of blood for the transfusion and checking their HIV status? If someone upstream is _not_ HIV+, then that eliminates one option. Also, wouldn’t viral load be some indication of who was infected first (aunt v uncle)? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/25 "2004-11-24T19:27:34Z")
I’d like to add that I’m aware that the aunt or uncle could have had a heterosexual extra-marital affair, too. It’s just that either of those would require 2 hetero-sexual transmissions, one of which has to go the hard way (8 times less likely for a man to get it from a woman than vice-versa, I found). Just that it didn’t have to be a “down-low” affair. ---
**Author:** ![jgroub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@jgroub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jgroub)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/26 "2004-11-24T19:42:25Z")
> [@MissTake](#): > > The idea is to have their homeowners insurance pay for your medical bills rather than your medical insurance company having to pay. Yeah. You have to think of it not as your mother suing your grandmother, but as your mother suing the owner of the house, who happens to be your grandmother. Here in NY state, we have something called No Fault insurance for cars. That means that no matter whose fault the car accident was, the injured person will have their treatment paid for (up to a point, which isn’t relevant here). There is a similar (although not mandatory) system in place for slip and fall accidents on someone else’s property called medpay. That means that no matter whose fault it is (even if it was no one’s), the insurance company will pick up the tab for someone injured on the property. Of course, you have to have this as part of your coverage, and again, it only goes so far. Obviously, YMMV in your state. ---
**Author:** ![jgroub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@jgroub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jgroub)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/27 "2004-11-24T19:46:21Z")
> [@LorieSmurf](#): > > I don’t get it. It wouldn’t be the hospitals fault would it? It would be the fault of the institution that supplied the hospital’s blood bank. Right? Here in Oklahoma we have the Oklahoma Blood Institute, American Red Cross… Hospital blood banks get their already tested blood from blood institutions. Or am I missing something? It would be dealt with as a products liability matter, just like a car sale. For example, a big car company, Drof, sells cars that rollover due to bad tires, supplied by StoneFire. You didn’t have any contact with them; you had contact with your local car dealer. So you sue the local car dealer, and the car dealer will sue Drof and StoneFire themselves. Or, since you know the names of the maker and tire supplier, you sue them too. It goes up the chain to get to the responsible party. You always have to sue everybody you think might be responsible. In this case, the hospital is supplying a bad product - blood. However, there are laws that treat blood as a medical supply and not a product, so that the theory doesn’t quite hold. But that would be the theory behind suing the hospital - because you can find out from them who supplied them with the blood. Was it the OBC, the ARC? You don’t know. But by suing the hospital, you can bet you’ll find out. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/28 "2004-11-24T22:26:27Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Shouldn’t they be able to ascertain this by going back to the donor(s) of blood for the transfusion and checking their HIV status? If someone upstream is _not_ HIV+, then that eliminates one option. Also, wouldn’t viral load be some indication of who was infected first (aunt v uncle)? They should. Regulations require that blood banks have a look-back program in place to do just that. If a patient who received blood products ends up positive for HIV (or other transmissible viruses) then the blood bank or blood center can trace the units back to the donor(s) and also determine if any other patients received components from the same donor(s) to notify them of the problem. Regarding HIV, testing has improved much over the past years but it’s not perfect. There is still a small window between time of infection and development of detectable antibody. All those screening questions are supposed to rule out donors with a high risk of infection. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412/29 "2004-11-24T22:33:16Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > It’s a fairly standard question, as are the letters that later come from the insurance company asking for details about the incident so that they know whether they should fork over the dough, or if they should pursue payment through someone else. > > I fell into my bathtub once (long, embarassing story) and ended up with a fat lip and four stitches on my finger. The hospital asked me if the injuries had been inflicted by anyone else. I said that they hadn’t, of course. A month or so later, I got a letter from the ins. co. asking for more information, and the first question was: “Was this injury the result of the actions or inactions of another party?” That question was as tactful as a doctor who is prescribing you birth control asking if you sleep around… with muliple partners… alot. Asking if you are insured is one thing, asking if you are gonna sue someone to pay your hospital bill is outrageous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-lawsuits-really-go-this-far/276412.md?page=1)