Yale Must Pay Doctor Infected With AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Yale Must Pay Doctor Infected With AIDS

New York Times (12/18/97) P. A32
Fisher, Ian

Abstract: A young physician who was infected with HIV after pricking her thumb when inserting a catheter tube into a dying AIDS patient at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1988 was awarded $12.2 million on Wednesday by a New Haven Superior Court jury. The court agreed that the hospital had not trained the physician properly; she was only seven weeks into her medical residency when the accident occurred. Michael P. Koskoff, attorney for the plaintiff, said: "The important thing about the money is to make the medical programs around the country realize it is cheaper to train their interns than not to train them." Several experts said the award was the largest of its kind in a number of cases filed by people stuck by HIV-tainted needles. William Doyle, an attorney for Yale University--which operates the medical training program at Yale-New Haven Hospital--said the program provided excellent training and that the physician should have taken basic precautions that would have prevented the accident. Yale officials said they would appeal the verdict.

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