just when you think people might be wising up...

[netmouse]

gakked from supergee:

Cop physically bars a gay man's friend from continuing to give him CPR (man dies of heart attack) because he believes a) the man must have had HIV because he was gay, and b) you run a risk of getting HIV through giving CPR (the risk is very low) and c) a person doesn't have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to take that risk. The EMT crew that arrived ten minutes later administered CPR (ignoring the cop, who told them the man was HIV positive, though he wasn't), but it was too late and Claude Green, Jr. died. The ACLU is suing, and I hope this gets *talked* about in the press.

HIV is a lot harder to transmit than we used to think.

Oh, and all people with alternative lifestyles are not riddled with disease. Just in case you were wondering.

[edited after cipherpunk's comments, below]

Comments

[mishamish.livejournal.com]

Geeze, it's like we're still in the early 80's when it was called Gay Related Immuno-Suppressive Virus (GRID). One giant LEAP backwards for societal understanding and common sense.

Sometimes, I really despise the society I live in...

[atdt1991.livejournal.com]

I, er... thought they all had the leprosy.


what am I doing with all these extra limbs, then?

[metalfatigue]

Ever since I heard (ca. 2003) that both sides in the Congolese civil war were hunting and eating Pygmies in order to win the war by magical means, I am no longer surprised by any horror that humans can inflict on each other.

Briefly startled, sometimes, but never surprised.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

(b) is not true. You do run a risk of HIV through CPR, mostly from the rescue breaths.

CPR is by definition an emergency lifesaving measure. In those situations, the risk of blood is nontrivial. For instance, consider someone who's gone into cardiac arrest from electric shock. They need CPR... however, in their initial convulsions they may have bit down on their tongue hard enough to draw blood. Or someone who is in convulsions may bite down hard on a responder's finger during the initial finger sweep.

The risk of contracting a bloodborne pathogen by CPR is not high, but it's not a zero-risk proposition. When possible, universal precautions should be taken. If universal precautions aren't possible, however, then of course an informed responder should be allowed to assume whatever risk they feel comfortable with in the course of trying to save a life.

And just to repeat: bloodborne disease transmission via CPR is highly unlikely.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's true. I'll be hitting myself for having edited the term "high" out of my original sentence before posting it. You run a real, but not very likely risk; it is an especially low risk in a situation where the person has not convulsed or fallen.

Good precautions include wearing latex gloves and using a CPR breathing barrier (http://www.arc-chicago.axxiomportal.com/Store/product.aspx?p=56113), available from the Red Cross.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I had to reassure a young man who called our clinic he could not catch HIV from sticking his hand in the toilet.

[chowbok.livejournal.com]

No argument that this is appalling. I would be wary, though, of drawing any larger conclusion about society about this incident. This is not a significant sample size, so to speak. This was a stupid hick cop from one of the poorest counties in West Virginia. Seizing on this to show how horrible our culture is is a stretch.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

So hopefully the victim's family are suing the police for wrongful death.