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$18 million H IVtransmission suit award
by Karen Tesla
Associated Press Writer
(AP)—A civil jury has placed a price tag on
knowingly infecting your spouse with AIDS: $18
million.
That’s how much a former exotic dancer must
pay her ex-husband for having unprotected sex
with him before she told him she was HIV-infected.
Lucienne Wheeland, 29, who wasn’t at the trial
Wednesday, August 26, in Dade County court, in
Miami, Florida, was ordered to pay $8 million in
compensatory and $10 million in punitive dam
ages to Bruce Wheeland, 29, of Fort Lauderdale."
In the past, most awards have been granted to
people with HIV infected by tainted blood or a
homosexual partner. Rock Hudson’s male lover,
for example, settled a $5.5 million lawsuit in 1991
against the late actor’s estate. Marc Christian had
sued claiming Hudson concealed the fact he had
AIDS.
Wheeland, who has full-blown AIDS, said he
hopes the ruling heightens awareness among het
erosexuals for the need to communicate.
. The Brazilian dancer and the “American boy”
from Omaha, Neb., met in April 1989 and had
unprotected sex. Bruce Wheeland later found out
his wife was HIV-positive, but the two decided to
marry anyway, Sarnoff said.
After 18 months of marriage, Wheeland sued
his wife for divorce, claiming she was having
extramarital affairs. During the proceedings, Dade
County Judge Alan Gold ruled the woman knew
she was HIV-infected before meeting Wheeland.
She denied it, despite testimony to the contrary
from doctors who said they had tested or treated
her.
Gold granted the divorce May 3, and in doing
so laid the foundation for the civil trial to determine
how much, if any, damages should be paid. But an
order to pay $18 million does not end the battle for
the money. “She’s sold some life insurance policies
that we’re going to go after. There’s a homeowner’s
policy that we’re going to go after," said Sarnoff,
who was preparing to have Wednesday’s court
action recognized by the Brazilian government so
he could pursue two homes the woman owns
there. Wheeland said his ex-wife was with her
brother, Luciano Geraldo, in Newark, N.J., on
Wednesday. But a friend of Geraldo’s said Lucienne
Wheeland had gone to Venezuela. ¥
Lawsuit filed concerning
medical records privacy
AP) — A lawsuit filed by a 28-year-old man
with the AIDS virus raises questions about patient-
doctor confidentiality in Virginia, the man’s attor
ney said.
The mansays his co-workers at Sentara Health
System’s corporate office learned of his condition
two days before he did because they tapped into
computer files of his health records.
The man contends that letting co-workers see
his records violated his right to confidentiality,
may hurt his chances for career advancement and
has affected his relationship with co-workers. He
seeks $25,000 in compensatory damages and
$25,000 in punitive damages.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 18, raises questions
about what has been an unspoken rule, said Vir
ginia K. Shema, the employee’s attorney. No law in
Virginia requires patient-doctor confidentiality,
even though “everyone assumes that is the case,”
she said.
Last year, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled
that patients may have the right to damages for
disclosure of confidential information. ,
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star of
Norfolk declined to identify the man to protect his
privacy, though his name appears on public court
documents involved in the lawsuit.
The man says his doctor at Sentara Norfolk
General Hospital told him in January he was in
fected with the HIV virus. He told the newspaper
that after he was released from the hospital, a co
worker told him other employees had snooped
through his computer records and were spreading
news of his condition.
At Sentara, the employee said, a manager has
offered to fire anyone who looked at his records.
The employee, however, said he is only interested
in preventing the situation from happening to
other employees.
Deborah Myers, Sentara’s public affairs direc
tor, said the employee “has not given us the names
of employees who’ve done this,” so no onehas been
disciplined. She said only authorized employees
who need to review patient billing accounts can
obtain them by computer and that no employee
can see a patient’s medical records.
“1, for instance, cannot j ust go in and say, ‘Gee,
I wonder why my friend is in the hospital,” Ms.
Myers said.
The man says that so far, none of his co
workers has made overt comments about his con
dition and no one has asked about it openly.▼
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