HIV Misdiagnosis Prompts Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

A Kentucky man has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against doctors and others at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the UK-affiliated Bluegrass Care Clinic and the Fayette County Health Department for treating him for HIV for eight years in spite of the fact that he did not have HIV. Bobby Russell believes the doctors who diagnosed him and treated him were negligent for not properly administering an HIV test that would have demonstrated he did not contract the deadly virus. “I feel like I was sentenced to a crime I wasn’t guilty of,” Russell said. “I have intentionally put distance between my family and my friends because I thought I was dying, and I didn’t want my family to see me dying. I didn’t want my nieces and nephews see me deteriorating. I thought I was dying … Emotionally, mentally, it destroyed me. It just destroyed me. In 2009, when things got really bad for me, suicide was a strong option for me.” Russell alleges that the standard HIV protocols for testing were not followed and that led to the incorrect diagnosis.