United Press International; Friday March 27 4:48 PM EST
Michael Kirkland

He desperately needed a heart-valve operation. Without it he would die. But he says a group of surgeons were refusing to perform the operation _ which the chief surgeon called "very bloody, very intense" _ because Hieb was HIV-positive.

Hieb ("HEEB") believes he is alive today because his internist, a compassionate friend as well as a doctor, called the chief surgeon and after some argument convinced him to change his mind.

Heib says, "If it were not for my having (an internist) who cared whether I lived or died, I probably would be dead."

The Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, which provided Hieb with legal help after his ordeal, does not believe his case is that unusual. Clinic officials are anxiously watching the progess of a Maine case before the Supreme Court which will decide whether being HIV-positive is an impairment protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The act forbids discrimination against the disabled in a variety of areas, including medical service.

The Supreme Court hears the case Monday.

But whatever the justices eventually decide, it would have come too late for Hieb, an Alexandria, Va., resident, had it not been for his internist.

Hieb said his former insurance company first sent him to the group of surgeons almost two years ago when medical tests showed the valve in the left chamber of his heart had stopped working.

Hieb remembers sitting in the examining room when a surgeon came in to talk to him and his partner, Mark: "He looked at me. He looked at Mark. He said, 'Oh no, we can't operate. You have AIDS."

Hieb said he thought the surgeon meant the operation was just too risky for someone with his disease. He also thought, "I guess I'm just going to get weaker and weaker and die."

Ultimately, Hieb's internist told him he needed to have the surgery. But when Hieb called the surgical group back to schedule the operation, the office manager responded that the surgeons "said they were not operating on you because you were HIV-positive." Hieb says she looked at his chart and read to him, "Customer has AIDS _ will not operate."

When he demanded to speak with the chief surgeon who would have done the procedure, the surgeon told him, "It's very dangerous. It's a lot of complications not only for you as a patient. I'm putting my life and everyone at the hospital's life in jeopardy by working with someone who has AIDS. I will not operate on you because you are HIV-positive."

Told what had happened, the internist could not believe that there had not been some misunderstanding. Hieb says when the internist called the surgeon and was told the same story, the two doctors began arguing on the phone.

Finally, Hieb's internist friend hung up the phone and turned to him, saying, "You're going to get the operation."

A couple of months later, he did.

But Hieb, now 57 and apparently healthy except for his controlled infectious condition, says he wonders whether the surgeons who put the pig's heart valve in his chest had their own hearts in the procedure.

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