Doctor Fights Back: ‘I Don’t Have AIDS,’ He Tells Town

The banner headline was anything but typical for the front page of a small, Southern newspaper: “Athens Doctor: ‘I Don’t Have AI”

Dr. James W. Smith, a prominent pediatrician in his hometown for more than 18 years, decided on a public defense against a “vicious lie” that spread like only gossip can.

“People heard that I had tested positive for AIDS,” he said. “I was supposedly leaving my practice and leaving town.”

Smith, 53, said he first heard of the rumor when his office began receiving queries from nervous parents shortly after Thanksgiving.

“I have no idea who started it,” he said. “Obviously, someone was trying to get back at me for something.”

Then he learned that Athens-Limestone Hospital was getting calls. So was The News Courier, the local newspaper. The rumor spread to the school system. Other pediatricians were approached by parents who didn’t want their children treated by a doctor with AIDS.

“In a smaller town, everybody knows everybody,” said Sonny Turner, news editor of The News Courier. “They’re all related to somebody or have some friends who are.”

Smith, who divorced two years ago and has two adult daughters, said he thought his physique contributed to the rumor’s spread through the north Alabama town of 17,000.

“I am slender,” he said during a recent interview. “People who have AIDS are usually slender. But I’m slender by design, and I make sure I stay that way” with regular exercise.

Turner decided to call Smith after the rumor reached his desk at the newspaper. With 3,000 children as patients, Smith is well known around Athens, 90 miles north of Birmingham.

“We usually don’t report on rumors,” Turner said. “But that case was really a different case.”

Turner said he could tell from calls he received that people believed what they heard.

“My opinion was it definitely could have destroyed his business,” he said. “One lady in particular drew my attention. She told me we owed it to our readers to investigate this rumor. She told me we should come out with a story that Sunday letting them know whether this was true or false.”

So Smith was approached for comment and his denial ran at the top of the front page on Dec. 6.

In the article, the doctor assured everyone that he was “healthy and free of any infectious disease” and offered a $2,000 reward for any information about who began the rumor.

“I played it as the lead story,” Turner said. “At first, I didn’t know whether to put it on the front page or inside but wanted people to see it.”

Connie Tucker was one of the readers. Her 11-year-old son, Nicholas, is one of Smith’s patients and she heard the rumor.

“I was kind of afraid but personally I didn’t believe it,” she said. “Knowing Dr. Smith and the type person he is, I did not think anything of it. But I was pleased when he publicly stated it was not true. As a parent, that made me feel better.”

Smith said he has not lost any patients because of the rumor and support from the people of Athens has been “absolutely fantastic” since the story was published. But his eyes reflect a steely rage when he talks about what happened.

“Put yourself in that position: someone tells you that people are saying you have AIDS,” he said. “How would if affect your job? How would it affect you and the people you know?”