Firefighters Wary After Exposure to Victim of AIDS

What began as a routine call to rescue the driver of a car that plunged down a Topanga Canyon cliff Sunday has triggered fear among Los Angeles County firefighters about the risks of treating people who have the deadly disease AIDS.

Four firefighters came into contact with an AIDS victim during unsuccessful attempts to revive him, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by one fireman, authorities said. The firefighters learned soon afterward that the victim had AIDS and hepatitis B, another contagious disease.

The county coroner’s office said the victim was a 33-year-old resident of Hollywood, but withheld his name pending notification of relatives. After performing an autopsy, the coroner’s office listed the death as accidental. But police said they are investigating the possibility that the man was trying to kill himself because he suffered from acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Rescuers at Little Risk

Medical experts on AIDS said the rescuers ran little risk of contracting the disease. They said research indicates that AIDS is only transmitted by a significant exchange of bodily fluids, and that normal mouth-to-mouth resuscitation would not constitute such an exchange.

But when firefighters learned that the crash victim was carrying a card of an AIDS clinic in Los Angeles, they isolated themselves in their station house in Topanga Canyon and called in replacements to cover emergency calls in their Topanga Canyon-area district.

A representative of the coroner’s office discovered the clinic’s card in the victim’s wallet as he was removing the body after firefighters had lifted it up to Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

After receiving confirmation several hours later that the man had AIDS and hepatitis B, the four firefighters went to Santa Monica Hospital, where they received shots to protect them against contracting hepatitis B, according to fire officials.

1st Incident of Its Kind

County fire officials said it was the first known incident in which county personnel had treated an AIDS victim with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When rescuers suspect that a victim has a communicable disease, they routinely use mechanical respirators or masks, officials said.

Capt. Gordon Pearson, county Fire Department spokesman, said the incident probably would prompt the department to reassess its handling of people who might have AIDS. But he said that firefighters would have to continue to administer every life-saving procedure in extreme emergencies where no information about a victim is available.

“The options are limited” in an emergency, Pearson said.

“Our policy is that we’re here to protect life and property,” he said. “In this particular case we had no reason to expect anything but a routine vehicle accident.”

Fire officials identified the four men who came into contact with the AIDS victim as Capt. Jon Galiher, firefighters Shawn Corbeil and Sherman Owens, and engineer Tom Norton.

First Rescuers at Scene

Galiher said he and Corbeil were the first rescuers to rappel down the steep cliff off Topanga Canyon Boulevard, about three miles north of Pacific Coast Highway. The Hollywood man was barely breathing, and the two immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, with Corbeil administering mouth-to-mouth breathing, Galiher said.

The efforts failed, however, and the man was pronounced dead of multiple injuries from the crash. The car fell more than 200 feet down the cliff at about 11 a.m., officials said.

Galiher said the rescuers came into with contact with blood and other fluids from the man.

Galiher said he and his colleagues began to worry about the contact when the body was brought up the canyon, and the card was found in the victim’s wallet.

The man’s doctor later confirmed he was being treated for AIDS and hepatitis B, fire and police said Monday.

Doesn’t Feel Threatened

Galiher said he does not feel threatened by his exposure to the AIDS victim, but that firefighters were worried about Corbeil.

“There’s a feeling of urgency involved with him,” Galiher said. “If I could reverse and not have gone through with the procedure, I probably would have.”

Galiher said he would have taken precautions, such as wearing gloves and using a mechanical respirator, if he had known the man had AIDS.

“We would be going beyond a reasonable risk to give mouth-to-mouth to a known AIDS victim,” Galiher said. “It’s a very gray area.”

But health experts on AIDS said that the firefighters faced little risk of getting AIDS, which researchers believe can take up to five years to develop.

Risk ‘Very Low’

“The chances of contracting it is probably none, or very low,” said Dr. Michael Roth, an associate professor of immunology at UCLA and co-chairman of the state AIDS Commission.

Roth and three other experts on AIDS said the latest research on the disease, which impairs the body’s ability to resist infection, is spread through a direct transmission of fluids in quantities greater than would be exchanged in regular mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. AIDS is usually transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusions or intravenous drug use, Roth said.

Despite the reassurances of the AIDS researchers, Fire Department spokesman Pearson said rescuers likely will be quicker to use gloves and masks when handling accident victims.

Pearson said the firefighters who handled the man in Sunday’s rescue will be given blood tests for AIDS over the next 14 months.

Firefighter Called Victim

“There’s a victim in this and it’s the firefighter,” Pearson said.

Dr. Gregory Palmer, medical director for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the department has no formal policy on dealing with victims of AIDS and other communicable diseases, such as hepatitis B and tuberculosis.

Department officials in 1983 recommended that firefighters handling such patients wear gloves, wash their hands and take extra care with sharp objects so they do not cut themselves.

Palmer said the city Fire Department would not establish a separate policy on handling AIDS victims unless new research finds that AIDS can be transmitted by routine contact.