Justice Dept. Settlement Bars Denying Care to AIDS Patients

Seeking to send “a clear message” to stop discrimination against AIDS patients, the Justice Department on Monday settled a discrimination suit with Philadelphia that bars emergency medical personnel from refusing assistance to those with the disease.

The settlement, the first involving an AIDS case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, also will require training for each of the city’s 2,300 firefighters and emergency medical workers on preventing the transmission of HIV, respecting a person’s right to privacy while rendering medical care and being sensitive to the needs of persons with HIV or AIDS.

In January, 1993, Philadelphia emergency medical technicians allegedly refused to place on a stretcher a man lying on the ground and complaining of chest pains. They had asked the man if he was on any medication and he had whispered that he was taking AZT, a drug used to treat persons with HIV.

One of the technicians then allegedly yelled, “Oh my God, he has AIDS,” according to Merrily Friedlander, a Civil Rights division attorney, and the technicians told the man to place himself on the stretcher. When he was unable to do so, a bystander helped him onto the stretcher and placed him in the ambulance.

“Today’s settlement will send a clear message to all cities across the nation that we will not tolerate discrimination against persons with AIDS,” said James P. Turner, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights. Such discrimination is barred by Title II of the disabilities act.

Under the settlement, the man, whose name was withheld but who was described as a student in his 20s, will receive $10,000 in compensatory damages and a formal written apology from the city.

In addition, the city must develop and make public a written policy that prohibits emergency medical technicians from discriminating against those with HIV or AIDS. The city also will be required to discipline any employee who fails to comply with its guidelines.

The complaint that led to the settlement was filed by the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.