Physician With AIDS Says Clinic Colleagues Forced Him to Leave

An AIDS-infected gynecologist who claims he was forced out of a Santa Monica women’s medical clinic that is the model for the television series “HeartBeat” sued the facility Wednesday for AIDS and sex discrimination.

Dr. James S. Gordon charged that he was forced to leave his position as a specialist in infertility and reproductive endocrinology for the Women’s Medical Group of Santa Monica because his partners at the clinic feared that his illness would scare away patients.

The Santa Monica Superior Court suit seeks $5 million in damages from Gordon’s clinic partners, Drs. Karen Blanchard and Marki J. Knox.

Clinic founder and senior partner Blanchard is a technical adviser to the television show “HeartBeat.” It is a spring replacement for ABC’s “Dynasty” and is being considered as a possible fall series. Its sixth and final tryout episode aired Wednesday night, several hours after the suit was filed.

Allegations Denied

Blanchard and Knox denied Gordon’s allegations. They said Gordon voluntarily quit his practice after he was briefly hospitalized three months ago with pneumonia brought on by acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Medical experts said Gordon’s discrimination suit is apparently the first ever filed in California by a physician suffering from AIDS, a fatal disease for which no cure has been found.

“There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of physicians who have tested positive for the human immuno-deficiency virus in this country,” Gordon told reporters at a West Hollywood press conference. “I never thought I’d be the first one to step forward.”

Gordon, 39, said he is a homosexual who first tested positive for the AIDS virus 16 months ago. He said he continued his medical practice at the clinic under safety guidelines set by the federal Centers for Disease Control with the permission of Blanchard and Knox.

But when he was hospitalized Jan. 21 with pneumonia and Blanchard and Knox learned that he had developed AIDS, he was told not to come back to work at the 11-year-old clinic, Gordon said.

He said his former partners spurned his request to resume his practice on a limited, “hands-off basis so I would be absolutely no threat” to patients.

Gordon, who teaches at the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, said about 75% of his previous clinic work involved “hands-on” procedures.

“Karen (Blanchard) said to get out of Santa Monica and stay as far away as you can,” Gordon said. “They told me to come get my furniture out of the clinic.”

But Blanchard and Knox denied that Gordon has been forced out of the busy clinic, which lists 18,000 active patients--including many women with fertility problems.

Different Viewpoint

“We did not fire Dr. Gordon,” Blanchard said. “He told us unequivocally he did not intend to return to his practice. He even gave us names of possible replacements.”

Knox said: “He told me he didn’t feel he could ever come back to the practice of medicine. He told me that on several occasions. Later, he changed his mind.”

The pair said Gordon remains a co-owner of the clinic--which means he is, in effect, suing himself. They said they have been aware of Gordon’s homosexuality since he joined the clinic in 1981.

But both acknowledged that they are now opposed to Gordon’s return, even on a limited basis. The hands-off practice Gordon is now proposing is not practical in their clinic, they said.

“I don’t see how an endocrinology-infertility specialist could practice without having surgery as one of his tools,” Knox said. She said patients also need to be assured of their doctor’s continued availability--particularly women with fertility problems who are attempting to become pregnant.

“I don’t think a doctor with AIDS can make that guarantee,” Knox said.

Patients Not Informed

Blanchard said the clinic has not informed Gordon’s patients that he has AIDS because Gordon has not authorized them to do so. She said Gordon approved a letter to patients mailed in February that stated that he had “a serious illness” and that a well-qualified replacement was being sought.