CHAPTER 410

An Act for the relief of Clair Ellendar Alexander.
[H 38]

Approved March 31, 1962

Ted Alexander was the Principal of the Buckingham County School
at a salary of sixty-two hundred dollars. His family consisted of his wife
and two children. |

Mr. Alexander entered the University of Virginia Hospital on Janu-
ary 20, 1961 to be operated on for an ulcer, which operation was a success
and he returned to his home in Buckingham, Virginia on February 9,
1961. He developed complications and returned to the University of Vir-
ginia Hospital on February 11 and was readmitted for an intestinal block-
age.

While in the University of Virginia Hospital, he had an operation on
February 24, 1961 and as part of the supportive therapy, a blood transfu-
sion was ordered. Mr. Alexander was accidentally given the wrong type of
blood which brought an extremely severe adverse reaction resulting in a
renal shutdown. This necessitated the use of an artificial kidney and other
measures which were resorted to in an attempt to overcome the results of
the accidental transfusion of the wrong type of blood. After a long and ex-
pensive hospital confinement he died as a direct result of the accidental
transfusion of the wrong type of blood. He left a widow and two small
children surviving him.

Prior to the transfusion there had been no history of renal trouble
on the part of Mr. Alexander. The University of Virginia Hospital is a
governmental institution and there is no method whereby Mrs. Alexander
can be compensated for the untimely death of her husband except by an act
of the General Assembly; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. There is hereby appropriated from the special funds of the University
of Virginia Hospital the sum of thirty thousand dollars to be paid:

__ 1. Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000) to Clair Ellendar Alexander,
widow of Ted Alexander, for the death of her husband.

2. To the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Buckingham County the sum
of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) to be paid in equal amounts to the
guardian or guardians of Ted Alexander, Jr. and Gretchen Alexander,
infant children of Ted Alexander, deceased, after qualifying and giving
sufficient bond with corporate surety, and joint control, to be used by said
guardian or guardians for the maintenance, education and support of said
Ted Alexander, Jr. and Gretchen Alexander; the payment of the said sum
aforesaid mentioned in this act shall be sole recovery for the death of
Ted Alexander and all the members, agents, physicians, nurses and
attendants of the University of Virginia Hospital are hereby acquitted and
released from any liability whatsoever for the said death of Ted Alexander.