Doc withheld hiv diagnosis for 1yr., were ethical laws broken?

[raquelagogo]

My boyfriend had an hiv test done over a year ago. The doctors office told him they would call him with the results when they came in. They never called and unfortunately he thought he had nothing to worry about, that it came back negative because if it hadn't he thought they would have definately called. He has seen the same doctor a plethera of times over the past year for simple things like asthma,  chest cold, and other small things but nobody ever mentioned to him anything about having hiv. Recently he went in for hemorrhoids, the doctor referred him to a specialist because he also had a case of anal warts that the doctor was going to treat. Today he went in for his consultation with the specialist, as he read through his file he casually said to him, so i see your hiv positive AND you have hep C. My boyfriend freaked, this is the first time he has ever heard anything like this. He called me right away so upsethe was threatening suicide. We've been having unprotected sex for almost 9 months and if this is all true then theres a 90% chance i have it as well. I have not been tested in almost a year in a half. I've instructed him to have another test done and i immediately made an appointment for a couple days from now to have my tests done. If we hadn't been together for this long he may of infected many many other people because of mportant life ir death information withheld from him by his doctors office. If we are both infected is there anything we can do legally to the doctor for keeping two, not one deadly disease, but two from his knowledge? Because of this my bf has lived a year in the dark and is now bringing me down the same painful road with him against his will. I love my bf and will never leave him through any part of this, we feel cheated, we're scared we can never have children, like our lives have been ruined because of this kept secret. Is there some similar court case i can refer to. Hiv meds cost lots of money, as do treatments, having children when both parents are hiv positive is possible but are expensive. Sueing the pants off this doctor would help give us money to live and raise the daughter we just got sole custody for and possibly have our own child together. We were planning to conceive later this year.

Help, we're literally lost, i almost foresee him slipping into depression because if this sick surprise.

Devastated on the north shore

[nursegirl6572]

While this isn't exactly the right place for this question, I'll give my input.

First, if he had one HIV test, and it was positive, there would still be the need for a confirmation test, so there still may be a chance the test was a false positive (fingers crossed).

I'm terribly sorry for what you and your BF are going through.  It sounds like more than anything a mistake, it sounds like it was somehow missed (informing him of the results).  I agree with teak, there really wouldn't be any kind of reason for a doctor to withhold the test results.  Like I said, someone probably dropped the ball.

Either way, I would imagine you certainly would probably be in a good position legally to pursue this further, because if indeed he is + and was not informed, then his treatment was delayed, and also, if you end up being infected, that's very unfortunate, and I would think (I'm not a legal expert by any stretch of the imagination) that the doctor/doctor's office is absolutely liable.

Try not to put the horse before the cart.  I would recommend both of you seeing an infectious diseases doctor ASAP.  He/she will better be able to inform you on the best way to proceed.  As for the legal stuff, of course you'll have to consult a lawyer, which I also would recommend doing urgently.

As for having children, it's absolutely possible for people who are infected to have healthy children, medicine has come a long way.  That's not something I would spend a lot of time worrying about right now, again, tend to your immediate concerns, which would be to confirm or rule out his infection, find out what YOUR status is, and seek legal advice.

Best to you.  Good luck.

[Teak]

No doctor is going to withhold anyone's test result.