AIDS Group Sues City Over Care Posted December 2, 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer The suit was filed on behalf of a man who says emergency workers failed to help him after learning he has AIDS By Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer An AIDS legal group yesterday sued the City of Philadelphia on behalf a Germantown man with AIDS who says city emergency personnel failed to provide appropriate care after learning he has the immunological disease. The federal civil-rights suit contends that when emergency medical personnel arrived at John Gill Smith's home in February 2001 after receiving a 911 call that Smith was having severe chest pains, one paramedic left the house upon learning from Smith's partner that Smith had AIDS. The remaining paramedic, the suit contends, shouted at Smith: "Cover your face or I'm not going to help you." The paramedic agreed to take Smith to a hospital emergency room, the lawsuit continues, but would not help get him to the ambulance, forcing Smith's partner and another friend to move him. The suit says the emergency workers would not allow Smith to lie down in the ambulance and told him to walk to a wheelchair at the entrance to Frankford Hospital-Frankford Campus. Smith, then 38, lived in Frankford at the time. City officials could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit and, as a policy, usually do not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit, filed by the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, a non-profit legal group that represents people with   HIV or AIDS, seeks unspecified money damages and a court order prohibiting future discrimination against people with the disease. The lawsuit also seeks mandatory training of city emergency personnel about the "current medical knowledge concerning the manner of transmission of HIV between one individual and another, and the methods of preventing such transmission in a medical emergency." The case recalls a similar AIDS Law Project lawsuit against the city in 1993 on behalf of a Philadelphia student who was refused care by the members of a city rescue crew after they learned he had AIDS. In 1994, that lawsuit resulted in the first settlement in the nation involving AIDS under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The settlement, negotiated with the U.S. Justice Department, resulted in mandatory AIDS education for more than 2,000 Philadelphia firefighters and emergency personnel. Ronda B. Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project, said the new lawsuit illustrated the need for continuing training on medical issues involving diseases such as AIDS. "Our goal is to make sure that EMTs respond appropriately to people with HIV/AIDS, " Goldfein said. "We thought, at first, that a lawsuit might slow things down. But this incident occurred in 2001, and we got the sense that the city wasn't taking this seriously." In September, the city agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of people with diabetes who claimed they became seriously ill after being denied proper medical care when they were arrested and taken to Philadelphia police lockups. That settlement, which requires training for police and city lockup personnel about handling people with diabetes, was almost identical to a 1982 settlement of a lawsuit against police about the handling of detainees with diabetes. Contact staff writer joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2658 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com