Woman Misdiagnosed With HIV Awarded $2.5 Million

BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts jury has awarded two and a-half
million dollars in damages to a woman who received HIV treatments
for almost nine years before discovering she never actually had the
AIDS virus.
Audrey Serrano claims the treatment caused a number of problems,
including depression, chronic fatigue and weight loss.
A lawyer for the 45-year-old woman says a doctor at an AIDS
clinic didn't order definitive tests even after blood monitoring
showed no HIV in her blood.
The doctor testified that she had no reason to question
Serrano's earlier diagnosis at another clinic. And the doctor said
Serrano told her she had worked as a prostitute, that her boyfriend
had AIDS and that she had a type of pneumonia associated with HIV
patients.
Serrano denied ever working as a prostitute but confirmed that
her former boyfriend had tested positive for HIV-AIDS.
She cried when she heard the verdict yesterday, saying she's
glad the jury believed her.