Subject: Doctor Files Lawsuit Against Syringe Firm Over HIV Infection
Date: Published: 1/13/93 (34 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Doctor Files Lawsuit
    Against Syringe Firm
    Over HIV Infection

    NEW YORK (AP) -- A doctor who claims she was infected with the
 AIDS virus in 1986 when she pricked her finger with a needle sued
 Becton Dickinson & Co., the maker of the syringe, seeking $1.1
 billion in damages.
    The woman, who charged that the syringe was unsafe, said she
 became infected when she drew a blood sample from a patient in July
 1986 during her first month of an internship and residency training
 program at a New York hospital.
    The product required its user to recap the syringe so the
 blood-filled sample could be taken to a hospital laboratory,
 according to the lawsuit filed in U. S. District Court in Manhattan.
 The woman alleged that the syringes "were grossly defective" because
 their design forced them to be recapped.
    The company and lawyers for the doctor tried unsuccessfully to
 negotiate a settlement over the past 30 months, according to the
 lawsuit.  The suit seeks $100 million in compensatory damages and $1
 billion in punitive damages.
    Leslie Gordon Fagen, an attorney for Becton Dickinson, Franklin
 Lakes, N. J., said, "We have reviewed the plaintiff's filing and the
 company does not believe that it bears any responsibility for the
 tragedy alleged in the complaint."

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
 from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]