14 Images

Facing the Truth

Ariel Jacobs died of AIDS in 1998 at age 15. ()

The Jacobses, during Sabbath prayer with relatives, are still angry at Cedars-Sinai. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Dawn Hartaway at 18, two years before she died of AIDS in 2001. Hartaway, born prematurely, was transfused with HIV-tainted blood at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. ()

Candy Pride weeps as she talks about her daughter, Dawn Hartaway. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Kristen Lee a few months after she was born at Cedars-Sinai, where she was transfused with HIV-tainted blood in 1980. ()

Kristen Lee, 26, was told in 1995 she had AIDS. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Frankie Spalding was infected at Cedars-Sinai in 1987, two years after the HIV test made it possible to screen blood for the virus. ()

Frankie Spalding at home in North Carolina. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

In 1982, at 13 days old, Noelle Simeon received a blood transfusion. Her family later learned that she had contracted HIV from it. ()

I really have no bad feelings about Cedars, Noelle Simeon says of her tainted transfusion. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Troy Anthony Blocker, son of Shevawn Avila. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Just before her son Troy died, Shevawn Avila spoke to him words of comfort from the Bible. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Sam, left, and Sara Kushnick at 18 months. ()

Sara Gorfinkel received a stuffed dog, one of a set given by her parents, when she and Sam were 2. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)