Woman Sues Doctor After Not Consenting to HIV Test

A woman is suing a physician after he administered an HIV test without her consent, and she was diagnosed as HIV-positive.

The anonymous 31-year-old woman went to Dr. Pavel Yutsis, after she had a gastric-bypass surgery to take care of a Vitamin B12 deficiency in 2011. Yutsis's clinic only dealt with dietary treatment. He suggested she take an HIV test after noticing her white blood cell count was low, but she said she was not interested in being tested.

A nurse administered the HIV test anyway, despite's New York state's public health law that requires written consent before taking an HIV test. According to the lawsuit, Yutsis failed to also give her the proper post-diagnosis counseling as mandated by the state. The lawsuit also alleges that staff members knew the results of the test despite confidentiality laws.

"When he told me I was positive and threw the papers at me, I just went numb," she said, according to the New York Daily News. She added, "I would have wanted to hear it in a better environment, from someone that I trusted. I never felt comfortable in that place."

The woman, identified as Jane Doe, is asking for unspecified damagers for "terror, confusion, embarrassment, and emotional distress."