Welch Police Chief Robert Bowman would not let Billy Snead continue to perform CPR on Claude Green, presumably because Bowman thought that Green was gay. There doesn't seem to be any other evidence to suggest that Green was positive for HIV. Indeed, Green was not HIV positive.
The possibility is remote that Bowman would be right about a man being HIV positive simply because he was gay. The CDC reports 10,852 men with HIV in 2005 nationwide. There are no reliable statistics on the population of homosexual males in the United States. However, even if only 2% of the population is gay, that means there are 2,919,994 gay men in the US (based on census estimates for July 2005 and CDC estimates of sexual orientation). That gives Bowman a 0.37% chance of being right about Green's HIV status.
But What if Chief Bowman was Right?
Let's assume for the sake of argument that Bowman was accidentally correct about Green being HIV positive. There is no evidence that a rescuer, lay or professional, can contract HIV from a victim of cardiac arrest while performing CPR. The American Heart Association addresses the issue on its Web site:The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says no scientific evidence shows that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is transmitted by saliva. The American Heart Association doesn't know of anyone getting AIDS from contact with a manikin used in CPR training, or from giving CPR to a cardiac arrest victim.I'm not suggesting Chief Bowman's actions were malicious, but he blocked Snead from continuing CPR. In fact, Snead believes Green was responding to the rescue efforts and had begun breathing prior to Bowman ordering him to stop. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of Claude Green, alleging wrongful death. On December 22, 2006, a judge denied Bowman's petition to dismiss the complaint.
Page 3 examines the expectations of both professional and lay rescuers.
