AIDS Tests

Your article (Part A, Feb. 16) about hospitals taking unauthorized AIDS tests hit an angry chord in me.

Last year when I was scheduled for an operation the surgeon came to me and asked me to take an HIV test so he’d know whether to take special measures to protect his operating room staff.

I thought about it overnight and then went back with a counter proposition. I’d agree to the test--if he and his entire operating room staff would take the test too so I could eliminate anyone who registered HIV positive. After all, they’d be working with sharp instruments and if anyone who’s HIV positive cut himself or herself and bled into my open wound, I’d be in big trouble.

Needless to say, the suggestion that I be tested was dropped very quickly.

I have no idea whether I was tested secretly. But if those tests are being made, why not extend them to cover all hospital personnel and have the results available to patients whose lives might be jeopardized if an accident happens in treatment or surgery. Fair?

JOHN W. BLOCH

Los Angeles