Not part of the bargain

Posted on June 5, 2012 in Our Blog,Patient Care

Let’s say you belong to an online dating service, and you meet someone. You go out for several dates then have unprotected sex. Afterwards you find out the other person has a sexually transmitted disease, and then you contract that disease. What do you do? This happened to a middle-aged Beaverton divorcee in 2010, and she decided to sue for pain and suffering. A Multnomah County jury sided with her and recently awarded her $900,000.

The woman, whose name is not known, contends that the man knowingly slept with her and passed along genital herpes. The man, a retired dentist, did not disclose his illness until immediately after the two slept together. The woman then cut off ties with him. She claims she asked the man to wear a condom, and he agreed, but for some reason this did not happen. The woman suffered a herpes outbreak soon after the incident. She had to go on medication that had devastating side effects, including significant hair loss and weight gain. The dentist, who had to testify, claims he did not think he was contagious at the time of the incident.

For more on this story, see this article.