FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 31, 1996

Wellesley Surgeon Liable for Ordering Secret Illegal AIDS Test

(BOSTON, MA) Suffolk Superior Court is entering a judgment of $10,000 against Wellesley plastic surgeon Douglas Wooldridge, M.D., for performing a secret and illegal HIV test on a patient. The Massachusetts HIV Testing Statute, passed in 1986, explicitly prohibits a physician from performing or ordering an HIV test without the patient’s specific written informed consent in advance. The test detects antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus, the causative agent of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). A separate investigation of Dr. Wooldridge’s misconduct by the Board of Registration in Medicine is continuing.

The case, filed on May 9, 1995, is Jason Gavann v. Douglas Wooldridge, M.D., Suffolk Superior Court, Civil Action No. 95-2521. While Mr. Gavann was completely unaware during a surgical operation in February, 1995, Dr. Wooldridge extracted a sample of Mr. Gavann’s blood and sent it to a laboratory for an HIV test. Dr. Wooldridge failed to obtain the legally required written consent for an HIV test, and never even told Mr. Gavann that he had performed the test at all. Mr. Gavann inadvertently discovered the HIV test result in his medical file during a follow-up visit at Dr. Wooldridge’s office weeks later. The HIV test was negative. In deposition testimony in the case, Dr. Wooldridge admitted to the illegal conduct.

According to Mr.Gavann’s lawyer, Bennett Klein, Director of the AIDS Law Project at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, “The Massachusetts HIV Testing Statute has not been adequately enforced and secret, illegal HIV testing is occurring more frequently than people realize. An HIV test without advance consent can be emotionally disastrous for a patient and subject a person to future discrimination in insurance and employment.”  Medical experts agree. According to Donald E. Craven. M.D., Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Director of the Clinical AIDS Program at Boston City Hospital, who provided expert testimony in the case, “HIV is not like other diseases. It is critical to a patient’s welfare, and to public health in general, that patients know in advance that they are taking an HIV test. A decision to take an HIV test and the HIV test result, whether it is negative or positive, has significant psychological consequences for a patient.” Dr. Craven added that “There is no medical reason why a surgeon must know a patient’s HIV status for infection control purposes.”

Mr. Gavann, a resident of Boston, said, “I would never go to a plastic surgeon or dermatologist like Dr. Wooldridge for an HIV test. I was shocked to find an HIV test result in my medical record. I filed this lawsuit so that this kind of conduct will be stopped.” It is not known how many of Dr. Wooldridge’s other patients were subjected to similar illegal HIV tests.