 | On June 21, 2005, Claude Green was driving his truck with his friend
Billy Snead near his home in Welch, West Virginia, a small town near the
southern end of the Allegheny Mountains. Suddenly, the truck veered off
the road. Billy looked over and saw Claude suffering a heart attack,
fighting for his life. |
Billy managed to grab hold of the steering wheel and get the truck back on
the road and stopped. He then jumped out, ran to the driver’s side of the
vehicle, opened the door and tried to help Claude. Having been trained in
CPR, Billy knew to check his mouth for obstructions and then begin pounding his
chest to keep Claude breathing. After several compressions to Claude’s
chest, Billy noticed Claude begin to breathe again.Chief of Police Robert Bowman, who was familiar with Claude, soon arrived on
the scene. Chief Bowman immediately told Billy to get back because Claude
had HIV. When Billy refused to stop performing CPR, Chief Bowman
physically pulled Billy away from Claude. Realizing for the first time
that Bowman was a police office, Billy was forced to stay away, but he continued
to try to monitor Claude’s condition by looking into the truck. Eventually
Chief Bowman had another officer take Billy away from the truck for
questioning.
| While Bowman and others looked on and discussed the fact that Claude was HIV
positive, Claude fought for his life alone for eight to ten minutes
until an
ambulance arrived. Despite being told by the police
chief that Claude had
HIV, the ambulance drivers tried to save
Claude. Claude later died at
Welch Community Hospital at the age
of 43.
Claude did not have HIV. Although he was not often vocal about his
sexual orientation, Claude was a gay man, which is the only explanation
as to
why Chief Bowman would assume Claude was HIV positive. |  |
Claude was survived by his mother, a son, three sisters and a brother.
The family eventually learned the truth about Claude’s final minutes and
contacted the ACLU for help. “We are outraged with this negligence for human life. We cannot change
what happened that day but hope to inform anyone who will listen. This is
not likely an isolated event and something needs to be done to prevent this from
happening to anyone else,” said Claude’s sister Mary Mullins.
On March 2, 2006, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Robert Bowman and the City
of Welch in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia
on behalf of Claude’s surviving family.
 |
The lawsuit includes claims under
both state and federal law. Among the claims, it charges that Bowman
discriminated against Green by preventing others from providing life-saving
medical care to Green because of his sexual orientation and/or perceived HIV
status. The lawsuit also claims that Bowman violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by
discriminating against Claude, who he perceived to be HIV positive. Since Claude did not have HIV, there was no risk of HIV exposure.
|
While
police officers, firefighters and EMS workers have been saving the lives of HIV
positive people for over 20 years, the CDC reports that there has never been a
confirmed case of HIV transmission through CPR. Before his death, Claude was acting as a caretaker to several rental
properties owned by his mother. He was born and raised in Welch and has
spent much of his adult life there.
