Canada – Family Remembers Their Son And The Tainted Blood Era
April 9, 2014; Posted by: WeBleed staff
Steve and Saxon Lambert speak on tainted blood in Canada in the 1980s and their son, Tyler.
An article from TheSpec.com recently touched on a hard subject that has affected the bleeding community for over 30 years. The article, focusing on the Lambert family who lost their son Tyler last week due to complications of pneumonia, was one of many hemophiliacs in Canada who contracted HIV due to tainted blood. The timing of this article comes in conjunction with the 24th anniversary of the death of Ryan White, the young face of hemophilia and HIV/AIDS who contracted HIV due to a contaminated blood outbreak in the United States in the early 1980s.
A startling fact out of the article stated that “98% of hemophiliacs born in Canada between 1977 and 1989 ended up becoming infected with HIV from tainted blood.” Tyler was just one of over 700 hemophiliacs to become infected but the Burlington, Ontario native did not let that affect him from living life to the fullest. Tyler learned how to administer his factor treatments, attended college and became a graphic designer as well as traveled the world. “He never cursed the system, he never said a thing about it, he was generous, he was kind, he was polite, he was a giving person,” his father Steve said. “He wanted a normal life.”
Thoughts go out to the Lambert family. Family and friends have planned a gathering at Bay Gardens Funeral Home in Burlington at 2 p.m. on April 27 for a memorial service in Tyler’s honor.
Photo Credit – John Rennison/The Hamilton Spectator
