Nurse Awarded $5.3 Million After AIDS Infection

A nurse infected with the AIDS virus while struggling with a combative prison inmate patient--as guards allegedly stood by without helping--has been awarded $5.3 million.

State Court of Claims Judge Israel Margolis said Tuesday that the nurse would not have been stuck with an AIDS-infected needle if the guards had helped restrain the patient.

The nurse, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, was infected in August, 1988, during a struggle between inmate John Balsan and several hospital workers at Faxton Hospital in Utica.

Balsan, who died within days from a heart attack, struck another nurse who was carrying an IV needle he had dislodged earlier. The needle jabbed the first nurse in the hand. She tested positive for the virus in February, 1989.

Several nurses testified that they repeatedly begged, cajoled and demanded help from the two prison guards. The guards remained by the door of the hospital room, they said.

A spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services said the state would appeal.