A Washington, D.C. appeals court ruled that a medical malpractice misdiagnosis lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he suffered emotional damage after he was incorrectly led to believe he had HIV.
According to court documents, 42 year-old Terry Hedgepeth believed he was HIV positive for five years because of an incorrect diagnosis made in 2000 at the Whitman-Walker Clinic. Hedgepeth has been attempting to sue the clinic for causing emotional injury, but his original medical malpractice lawsuit was dismissed because there was no physical injury. That ruling was overturned by the D.C. Appeals Court, which changed the laws in the District and ruled that emotional injury could be grounds for such a lawsuit.
According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, Hedgepeth originally went to get tested because he discovered that a former girlfriend was HIV-positive. When his tests came back positive, he alleges that he had a mental breakdown and spent time in a psychiatric ward. Hedgepeth claims he lost his homes, cut ties to his family, and moved into a facility for homeless patients.
Hedgepeth thought he had HIV until 2005, when a friend suggested alternative healing therapy. When a new test was conducted, it indicated that he did not have HIV. A third test confirmed he was HIV-negative.
The lawsuit is seeking $20 million in damages as the result of severe emotional distress, anxiety, loss of contact with family, commitment to psychiatric facilities, persistent depression, suicide ideation, damage to reputation, and the loss of years of normal life.
If you need assistance with a medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from a misdiagnosis, please contact a Pennsylvania wrong diagnosis lawyer of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511.
