Ex-Jail Nurse Blames the County for Her AIDS : Lawsuit: Woman is said to be near death as a result of infection by inmates.

A former nurse at Ventura County Jail filed a Superior Court lawsuit Friday, saying she contracted the virus that causes AIDS from inmates because she was not given proper protective equipment.

The 34-year-old Ventura County woman, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, is close to death, her lawyer said.

“She’s living at home, but I know she does not have a lot of time,” said attorney Marina R. Dini of Los Angeles.

The lawsuit, which claims criminal negligence and 12 other charges, names as defendants the county and the nurse’s former employer, California Forensic Medical Group, a company that provides nurses for the jail.

Dini said her client was constantly at risk while working at both the County Jail and the women’s honor farm in Ojai.

“She’s had repeated exposure to inmates who have bled, and have spit and have bitten her,” Dini said.

County legal officials could not be reached for comment. Sheriff’s Lt. Lance Young, a jail spokesman, said he had not seen the lawsuit. But Young also said he was not aware that any nurse who had worked at the jail had complained of being infected with HIV at either facility.

“It comes as a surprise to me,” he said.

Calls to officials at Monterey-based California Forensic Medical Group were not returned.

The lawsuit comes as Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury is preparing to ask county supervisors for permission to test certain inmates for the AIDS virus.

Under Bradbury’s proposal, which will be considered by the supervisors Tuesday, county doctors would test inmates for the AIDS virus in instances in which jail personnel are exposed to a prisoner’s blood.

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee said Bradbury was unaware of the lawsuit and his proposal did not stem from the nurse’s claims.

The nurse left her job in October, 1993, after she tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus.

She was awarded workers’ compensation by a judge who ruled that her illness was work-related, Dini said.

The attorney said the woman cannot point to any single incident during which she believes she was infected. Because she provided health care to inmates, she underwent voluntary testing.

Dini said the woman tested negative for the virus several times before she took the job at the county facilities as well as during her employment there.

The lawsuit asserted that while the woman worked at County Jail and at the Ojai facility, she and other nurses were not given such basic protective gear as masks, gloves, uniforms or eye goggles.

She began working at County Jail at 800 S. Victoria St., Ventura, in February, 1992, according to the suit. Her job entailed treating drug-addicted inmates as well as those infected with the virus that causes AIDS, the suit said.

In June of that year, she was transferred to the Ojai facility, which housed inmates who would often bite and scratch her, the suit said.

The suit said state law requires jails to provide medical workers with protective gear but the nurse was never provided such equipment.

It also said that the Ojai facility did not have a sink in the room where the nurse treated patients and that floors, counters and beds used for examinations were not properly cleaned.

Dini said the county should require mandatory AIDS testing of all inmates with histories of prostitution and intravenous drug use.

“You’ve got a high-risk group, so at minimum you’d want to start testing those individuals,” the attorney said.

County officials have said that they have performed about 20 tests for the acquired immune deficiency syndrome on prisoners in the past two years, all of which were negative.