The Nation - News from June 14, 1989

A man who tested positive for AIDS and who said he had sex with at least 14 women without using condoms before he found out, sued his doctors in Roanoke, Va., for not telling him of the test results. The malpractice lawsuit, believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country was filed on behalf of S. Michael Long, a divorced salesman. Long, 39, said he requested the test for acquired immune deficiency syndrome in 1987 while he was being treated for kidney stones at Roanoke’s Community Hospital because he had been given blood transfusions in 1980. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have been abstinent,” Long said. “I would never dream of passing this virus on.” Kenneth E. Labowitz, an Alexandria, Va., attorney who represents Long, said there have been very few AIDS-related malpractice cases.