Miami Herald (MH) - Tuesday, June 11, 1991
Peter Whoriskey; Herald Staff Writer

Jon Gauthier's case has stirred debate over the risks emergency personnel face when they extricate HIV-carriers from wrecked autos, burning buildings and other violent circumstances.

The Centers for Disease Control reports no cases in which an emergency care worker acquired the AIDS virus on the job. But testimony in the Gauthier case revealed widespread concern among local rescue workers anyway. At stake for Gauthier, a 41-year-old union activist who has served the city for 19 years, was pension benefits. Had the pension board ruled that he contracted the infection off-duty, his annual disability would have been reduced by about $10,000. Monday's ruling entitles Gauthier to 75 percent of his $39,000 annual salary.

When Gauthier dies, the benefits will extend to his survivors until 2001. He is married and has a 9-year-old son.

"I have fought for justice for firefighters my whole career and I thank God I have received some myself," Gauthier said after the decision. "The only thing I'm gearing up to now is peace and a quiet death."

During an often acrimonious four-hour hearing Monday, Gauthier testified that rescue work exposed him to the bodily fluids of HIV carriers on at least three occasions before he was diagnosed in November 1989.

Gauthier testified that in one instance he was called to extricate an infected person from a car wreck.

"I remember very well cutting my arm on bloody glass," he said.

Another time, Gauthier and other firefighters responded to a call from a woman with AIDS, who asked to be taken to the hospital.

"She had open sores on her legs and she was coughing," Lt. Norman Quinn testified. "Jon took the patient's vital signs. Because she couldn't walk on her own, we had to pick her up."

Other testimony, much of it taken in private, focused on the likelihood of other possible sources of the virus.

At one point during the public portion of the hearing, City Attorney Richard Kane alluded vaguely to a 1980 incident. The reference angered Gauthier, who objected. Kane said later that Gauthier was arrested in 1980 on charges of exposing sexual organs and offering to commit a lewd, lascivious and unnatural act. The charges, which were dropped, stemmed from incidents at an adult bookstore, Kane said.

Gauthier's attorney, Robert Sugarman, indicated that a doctor's closed-door testimony showed the virus was not transmitted at that time. Three of the five board members voted for the benefits.
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