dailymail.co.uk
Three men living with HIV were wrongly denied breast reduction surgeries by a New York plastic surgery clinic based on their statuses, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Mark Milano of New York and the US sued Springfield Medical Aesthetic in 2015, claiming that the facility’s policy against operating on anyone with HIV violated their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two other men joined the suit.
Ultimately, the court’s decision hinged instead on a federal law that requires doctors to assess the safety of a procedure based on a patient’s full medical history, including medications they are on.
US District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the doctors at Springfield had failed to thoroughly evaluate the medical facts in each man’s case to determine if any of them were on medications that could interfere with their surgery outcomes.
Lawyers for the company did not immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday.
But in court papers, lawyers for Springfield Medical Aesthetic, which operates the medical offices, said the issue was whether a licensed physician could be held liable for refusing to perform elective cosmetic surgery on HIV-positive patients based on the physician’s judgment the patients’ medications could interfere adversely with medications used in the surgery.
‘This case is not about a physician who holds discriminatory animus toward HIV+ patients,’ the lawyers wrote.
‘Importantly, this case is not about fear of infection by the physician or his staff when treating HIV+ patients.’