Personal Injury Law

Woman Seeks Illinois Medical Malpractice Damages from Doctor For False Positive HIV Test Results and Wrong Diagnosis

A woman is suing Quest Diagnostics and Dr. Michael E. Herrmann for Illinois medical malpractice. Ashley McCoy claims she suffered serious emotional distress after the blood testing agency and doctor confirmed that her test results for HIV were positive. They even issued written and oral statements that McCoy had HIV to other people at SLUCare Physicians of St. Louis University. However, following a re-test at ARUP laboratory, employees at the lab determined that McCoy actually did not have disease.

In the plaintiff?s Illinois medical malpractice complaint, she is seeking a judgment of over $250,000 plus costs. She accuses Quest Diagnostics of wrong diagnosis and says the company failed to correctly label its blood specimens, did not provide the right tests, and published the wrong test results, which it then gave to Herrmann.

McCoy says that the false positive HIV test results and the statements that Herrmann and McCoy issued wrongly claimed that she had the disease. She used the words liable, slander, and defamatory to describe test results and statements, and she claims her reputation was damaged. McCoy notes that she had to leave her job so she could receive treatment for a disease that she wasn't afflicted with. She says that she continues to see a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

McCoy is seeking damages for serious emotional injury, severe emotional pain, and loss of reputation.

Wrong Diagnosis
It is traumatic for anyone to receive a diagnosis for a serious illness or disease. This type of news inevitably takes a toll on someone?s emotional and physical well-being. Hopefully the diagnosis is issued sooner rather than later so that the proper treatment can be administered immediately and the chance of recovery is at its greatest.

A wrong diagnosis can delay necessary treatment and the patient may have to undergo more invasive procedures as a result. Prognosis for recovery may not be as good. There is also the kind of wrong diagnosis that occurs when a patient is mistakenly diagnosed with a condition that he or she actually doesn?t have. While this can be good news for the patient, he or she may have already suffered serious emotional trauma and undergone intensive medical treatment as a result of the wrong diagnosis. A person wrongly diagnosed with a disease that has a social stigma attached to it may suffer damage to his/her reputation, professional life, personal life, and social relationships.

Doctor sued over false positive HIV test, The Record, January 27, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Quest Diagnostics

HIV/AIDS, MayoClinic

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).