The Nation - News from Aug. 22, 1989

A Marine infected with the AIDS virus that killed his wife and son testified in Boston that government doctors at the Navy Regional Medical Center in Long Beach were negligent in the handling of his wife’s pregnancy. Chief Warrant Officer Martin Gaffney, 40, testified on the opening day of the non-jury trial in his $55-million lawsuit against the federal government in U.S. District Court. The couple’s son was stillborn in 1981, and Gaffney’s wife, Mutsuko, had to be given a blood transfusion, which was tainted with the deadly virus, the suit alleges. A later pregnancy produced a son, John, who died in 1986 at 13 months. Tests determined he and his parents had the AIDS virus. Mrs. Gaffney, 38, died in May, 1987.