Did She Get Herpes From The Dummy?

Posting Date: 10/10/2000

Randy: I just heard a news story saying that a woman is suing the American Red Cross, claiming she got herpes from practicing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a non-sterile classroom dummy.

I have herpes. I know that a person can have it for years without being aware of it, so how can a lawyer possibly prove that the plaintiff's herpes infection came from the dummy?

Dr. Dean: The answer is that lawyers have learned the truth doesn't matter; a lawyer doesn't have to prove anything in order to win a lawsuit.

As you mentioned, far more than half of Americans have the herpes virus although most people are not aware of ever having an outbreak. The only way to legitimately point fingers at the dummy would be if following the class eight out of ten people broke out with herpes lesions.

In addition, transmittal of the virus could only occur at the class under a nearly perfect set of circumstances. Person A sheds the virus onto the plastic dummy, and the virus survives -- which is possible but unlikely -- and Person B has a crack in her skin that lines up on the exact spot where Person A deposited the virus.

Herpes is a ubiquitous organism that we encounter everyday, everywhere. We think that traumas to the body, like sunlight exposure or bumping ourselves, trigger outbreaks. So statistically, what is most likely is that this woman already had herpes and something triggered the outbreak.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Very often, the defense settles because proving a negative -- that something didn't happen --is very difficult. Everyone goes away counting their money. That's the nature of our legal system.

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