DALLAS -- A Dallas man is suing a national blood donation center claiming its staff told him incorrectly that he was HIV positive, and shared that false information with the county and national entities.
Michael Sutton didn't expect to end up in a law office from donating plasma.
"A lot of good comes of it, you get a little money out of it," said Sutton, who's donated hundreds of times over the years.
Nearly every time, he says, was with with Octapharma at its Garland location. Then last fall, Sutton went the Dallas location, where he says staff shocked him to his core.
"They pulled me in the office and proceeded to tell me I had tested positive for HIV," he said. "My first instinct was 'No, you're wrong."
But the doubt had sunk in. Octapharma deals with blood every day, across the country. He soon worried they were right.
"I sunk into a serious depression," said Sutton.
Eventually, he gathered his courage and proceeded to get nearly a dozen second opinions.
"I've had 11 tests done in the last four months," he said. All were negative.
News 8 reached out Wednesday to ask what Octapharma thinks happened in Sutton's case, but we've not yet heard back. Sutton is now suing the company for defamation with Attorney Brad Kizzia. They argue his status wrong, and Octapharma falsely reported it to Dallas County and the National Donor Registry. Sutton says he's banned from giving blood or an organ because of it.
"The company has not taken responsibility for that, so we're hoping they're held accountable," said Kizzia.
Both are also fearful that sharing false information can have consequences far worse than a lawsuit.
"They could have caused me to go home and say, 'Well, they're the professionals. That's the end of it, and end my life,'" said Sutton. "They just, they can't do that to people."
Octapharma has locations nationwide, including 11 in Texas. Five of those are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.