Nursing Homes Sued For Refusing Patient With AIDS
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff


(New Orleans, Louisiana) Federal lawsuits were filed Tuesday against five Louisiana nursing homes that refused to admit a 50 year old stroke victim who has HIV.

A month before Cecil Little, 50, was discharged from the hospital where he underwent treatment for the stroke, his mother and his sister approached a nursing home within six miles of where they live. That facility, Tangi Pines, agreed to care for Little but after learning of his HIV status, just three days before he was due to arrive, the home backed out of the agreement.

Five other nearby nursing homes also refused provide care to him. Eventually, and out of desperation, the Little family had no choice but to move him into a nursing facility 160 miles round-trip from home--where he lived for four months.

In July of last year, Lambda Legal filed a complaint on Little's behalf with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights.