HIV Victim Triggers Suit, Protest at Clinic

As sign-carrying AIDS activists picketed a medical clinic here Friday, a man filed a federal lawsuit against the clinic and a physician who refused to treat a cut on his hand after learning he was HIV-positive.

About 30 sign-carrying AIDS activists protested outside the Ventura Urgent Care & Family Planning clinic where Dr. Thelma Reich turned away Salvador Fuentes last month after he informed her that he carried the AIDS virus.

Clinic officials said Reich resigned earlier this week because she refused to comply with clinic policy to accept all patients, including those with HIV.

Nonetheless, Fuentes filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging that Reich, the clinic and its owners violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by not treating him.

On Feb. 14, Reich wrote Fuentes a note saying she was refusing treatment because he is HIV-positive. Fuentes’ lawyers said the note will show that her actions violated a provision of the act that classified people with AIDS as disabled.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law Jan. 26, is meant to guarantee people with disabilities--including those who are HIV-positive or who have AIDS--access to public places, including hospitals and dentists’ offices, said Sande Buhai Pond, Fuentes’ lawyer.

“The law states very clearly that you cannot discriminate on the basis of a disability,” said Pond, who works out of the Western Law Center for the Handicapped at Loyola Law School.

“Being HIV-positive, or having AIDS, is clearly a disability, and there are a number of cases that say so very clearly,” Pond said.

While Fuentes carried his fight into the courtroom, members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, called on the Medical Board of California to take action against Reich and the clinic during their demonstration.

Marching in a single-file line on the sidewalk in front of the clinic at 5725 Ralston Street, the group chanted: “Thelma Reich is talking nonsense! Take away her doctor’s license!”

Clinic administrator Phil Berger issued a statement in which he apologized for the incident and said the facility has a policy to accept all patients, including those who are HIV-positive.

Berger also told an ACT UP representative that Reich is no longer employed by his clinic because of her refusal to adhere to this policy.

“We’re not going to hire her back here, and I don’t think she would like to work here under the circumstances we have imposed,” Berger said.

Reich did not return repeated phone calls Thursday and Friday.