Montreal — A prominent malpractice lawyer said Friday a lawsuit could be filed against a children's hospital that failed to notify patients for years that one of its surgeons was HIV-positive.
Jean-Pierre Menard said he has received calls from upset parents whose children were treated at Ste-Justine Hospital by the surgeon, identified by a former colleague as Dr. Maria Di Lorenzo.
"There is clearly some serious grounds for a suit here," Mr. Menard said in an interview.
"The grounds come from the fact that the patients were not made aware of this situation."
The hospital was deluged with thousands of calls after it asked 2,614 patients on Thursday to be tested for the virus that causes AIDS.
Ste-Justine said in a statement Friday it had received more than 4,500 calls in the 24 hours since the doctor's condition became known to the public.
The hospital announced Thursday the infected surgeon performed operations at the hospital between 1990 and 2003. They wouldn't name the doctor for confidentiality reasons.
Media reports said Dr. Di Lorenzo was 48 when she died last August after taking medical leave. They did not cite any sources.
The hospital has said the possibility of a patient being infected is slim, but it sent out registered letters to parents whose children were operated on by the surgeon.
Dr. Lucie Poitras, the hospital's director of professional services, has said the hospital's administration wasn't aware the doctor was HIV-positive until two weeks ago although the surgeon's supervisor and a committee of doctors knew in 1991.
Mr. Menard said such communication breakdowns are common in hospitals. He said he'll meet the parents who called him, to discuss their legal options.
A former colleague of Dr. Di Lorenzo's said Friday the doctor should have revealed her condition out of "professional courtesy."
Dr. Clifford Albert said Dr. Di Lorenzo never told him she had HIV when the two worked together at the hospital in 1995 and 1996.
"I would have liked to have been aware of it because I probably would have been a little bit more vigilant, for obvious reasons, in the operating room," said Dr. Albert, a cosmetic surgeon who worked under Dr. Di Lorenzo as a resident.
"As a colleague I think professional courtesy would dictate that, but I think she does have a right to privacy."
Dr. Albert and other medical experts pointed out Friday the risk of HIV transmission from a surgeon to a patient or colleague is extremely low.
Dr. Albert said that even if a person is pricked with a needle containing the virus, the chance of contracting HIV is only 0.3 per cent.
The Canadian Medical Association cites the low risk of transmission as the reason it doesn't believe doctors need to inform patients of their HIV-positive status.
Association president Dr. Sunil Patel said in an interview he wasn't aware of any province that forced doctors to make such a disclosure.
"But there is a caveat — if a physician knows they have HIV, then they must engage in a meaningful discussion with their ethics committee in the hospital where they practise," he said.
Patel added that HIV-positive doctors may be reluctant to disclose their condition due to the lingering stigma attached to HIV and AIDS.
"HIV has that emotionalism attached to it, which then engages this shame and blame approach," he said in a telephone interview from his office in Gimli, Man.
"Until society has grappled with that aspect, physicians will remain coy about sharing that information, even with their colleagues."
