European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday May 24, 1992 Ohio jury clears red Cross in aids Case tied to blood Cleveland Chi a j Ury has Given the american red Cross an important Legal Victory in what May be the first transfusion related aids Case to reach trial. The Cuya hoga county jury decided thursday that the red Cross should not be held responsible for the death of a woman who contracted aids from a blood transfusion following knee replacement surgery in 1983. Cora Imke 71, died dec. 18, 1987, of complications from aids. Her family a attorney Robert Demarco argued that the red Cross should have used a screening test then available that would have identified some contaminated blood. Demarco also argued that potential male blood donors should have been asked whether they were homosexuals because Gay men were known to be at High risk for developing aids. But Peter Blakley an attorney representing the red Cross told the jury that the medical Community was divided and confused in 1983 As to what to do about the disease. His the virus that causes aids was not identified until 1984. At least 12,000 people Are believed to have been i deceased Fla. Of transmitting Miami up a ii. Melton White a Miami dentist who died last year of aids was accused Friday of transmitting the virus that causes the disease to at least one patient. The accusation by a Man who would identify himself Only As John Roe came a Day after an Abc television report that said 30 of Whites patients had tested positive for his or human immunodeficiency virus. The report said six of the 30 infected patients had no other aids risk factors. Roe speaking at the offices of attorney Ellis Rubin said he was one of the six who did not take part in any activities normally associated with contracting aids. A i never used drugs. I never used a Needle. In a not Gay. I did no to have a Way of getting it. That a Why in a so upset about it a Roe said. Rubin said the National centers for disease control in Atlanta was not cooperating with his efforts to confirm that Roe acquired the virus from White. He said he asked for the Dan sequencing known As genetic fingerprints of those involved in the Case but the cd refused. Noirin Daly Kenny of Dundrum Ireland reads the Monument at the site of the discovery Well the first Well in the Batson Texas Oil Fields. Kenny entered a contest felted with the virus from contaminated blood transfusions before a screening test was developed in 1985. Blakley told the jury that the red Cross did not believe the screening test at Issue in 1983 was workable. Moreover he said red Cross officials did not believe people would be honest if asked in 1983 about their sex lives. Blakley argued that the red Cross did its Job by getting information about aids and the nations blood Supply to the hospitals it supplied with blood. He said it was the hospitals responsibility to inform physicians and surgeons and the physicians and surgeons Job to keep up with medical knowledge about aids. After delivering its verdict some jury members said they believed Imker a doctor should have kept abreast better of the risks of contaminated blood before ordering the transfusion. The mikes also sued their doctor Wayne Risius and settled for an undisclosed amount of Money. Several jurors said that Given what was known in 1983, the Agency could not be found negligent although they said the red Cross might have done some things  accused his to patient give us the Dan sequencing of our client John Roe but they have refused to give us the sequencing of any other patients of or. White or of or. White a Rubin said. Cd spokesman Kent Taylor said the Agency does not discuss individual cases. But the cd indicated that the Only his link Between dentists and their patients that its investigators have found involved Kimberly Bergalis off Ort Pierce ida., and another Florida dentist. Bergalis died last year from aids that was traced genetically to her dentist or. David acer of Stuart Fla. The cd information showed that four other patients with his were linked to acer. A ongoing a look backs investigations have not demonstrated further transmission from health care workers to patients a a cd statement said. Roe said he visited Whites office to have a tooth pulled. He tested positive for his in july 1991 after the visit. A i done to think much of him. I think i would be As healthy As anyone else if i Hadnot gone to him a Roe said. In which she won a trip anywhere in the world. She chose Batson where her ancestral Cousin worked in the Oil Fields in 1903. The stars and stripes a Page 7lawmakers override veto of Cut in . Sales tax from wire reports Trenton . A the Republican controlled legislature has overridden democratic gov. Jim Florio a veto of a Bill to lower the state sales tax. On july 1, the tax drops from 7 percent to 6 percent. The Assembly voted 59-12 in favor of the Cut thursday and the Senate followed with a 29-2 vote. The override was the states first since 1982. The Cut will take $608 million from the state budget. Democrats blasted the Cut As a political ploy saying republicans Arentt saying How they intend to Cut Florio a proposed $15.7 billion budget to make up the shortfall. Florio said he worried that the Cut would harm vital state programs. Quot i share the concerns of Copic who feel that the Price of this Penny Roll ack May have been too High a he  held in theft Kalispell Mont. A a mortician was charged with theft for allegedly reusing caskets and in one Case giving family members the ashes of the wrong person. Dixon b. Rice was arrested at the Weatherford funeral Home. He was released on $20,000 Bond. Rice is accused of promising to cremate caskets with the deceased but instead he allegedly removed the bodies and put the caskets Back into inventory. He also is accused of giving a family ashes he said were those of their relative when the relatives body Hadnot yet been cremated. All of the charges arc felonies. A a this is a heartbreaking Case because of the main to the families a said county attorney torn Icli. A families come to a funeral Home for services at a time when they arc vulnerable and looking for someone they can  Rice declined to  raises protested Washington a the government is giving a raise to doctors who treat medicare patients but some of the physicians arc complaining that they got the Short end of the Deal. The department of health and human services is recommending that Congress give a 2.6 percent raise for surgical services for medicare patients while giving a 0.3 percent raise for non surgical services. A these arc reasonable rates of growth for medicare spending on physician services consistent with our commitment to High Quality care a health and human services Secretary Louis Sullivan said. On Friday the american society of internal Medicine called the proposal unacceptable. It said giving a bigger raise to surgeons will tilt the system toward expensive surgery rather than primary  spoof ruled of Cambridge mass. Harvard Law schools administrative Board said a Law review parody that spoofed the work of a slain feminist professor did no to violate school rules so its authors wont be disciplined. Many outraged students and faculty members said the parody was a symptom of sexist attitudes at the school. Law school professor David Kennedy called for an investigation. T to of the reviews staffers wrote the spoof which targeted Mary Joe frug a professor at the new England school of Law who was stabbed to death last year. An essay frug wrote on violence against women a a postmodernist feminist Legal manifesto a was published in March in the Harvard Law review. The parody in the a Law revue a an annual spoof edition was titled a the manifesto of postmortem Legal feminism and signed a Mary Doe rigor mortis professor of  in its decision the administrative Board said its members joined a those members of the Community who believe the parody was offensive and we deplore the pain it Nas  but it said no Law school Rule a imposes limits on the Content of publications by students that would be applicable  the decision was announced in a letter sent to Kennedy on wednesday. A we have finally bludgeoned the cd in Atlanta to Ajo discovering Batson Texas