
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 26, 1993                   TAG: 9307260029
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

JUST REWARD FOR GOOD SAMARITAN?

Thanks to a gray area in Virginia law, John Ludwig and Van York have gone from being hailed as heroes to feeling like zeroes.

Ludwig and York were driving along Interstate 64 in suburban Richmond on July 14 when they came upon a man bleeding badly inside a mangled car. When the car caught fire, Ludwig and York pulled the man from his vehicle - getting large amounts of blood on themselves in the process.

Now, Ludwig and York want to know if the man's blood was carrying any infectious diseases. But according to Virginia law, it's none of their business.

Virginia law says only people in an official capacity, like police officers or paramedics, can find out if they've come in contact with HIV or hepatitis.

That bit of news has had a sobering effect on Ludwig, York and their loved ones.

Without information about the man they helped, Ludwig and York could wait as long as a year before tests would conclusively show whether they had been infected.

During that time, they could infect a family member - particularly in the case of hepatitis B, which is 100 times more contagious than HIV and kills 14 people in the United States every day.

Virginia law stipulates that the only people who can legally tell good Samaritans about blood test results are the person they helped or the victim's family members.

In this case, the victim, Michael Austin, died. No one had told Austin's family members of the rescuers' predicament.

"I can't believe that information was not given to them - that's a screwed-up law," said Dusty Bollinger, Austin's sister-in-law.

Bollinger said family members have written the medical examiner for the information - if it's available. Bollinger said they'd be more than happy to share it with York and Ludwig.

"We would love to talk to them, period," Bollinger said. "We are so thankful for what they did."

Even with their painful predicament, Ludwig and York said they had no regrets.

"The blood situation never even entered my mind," said York, who has two children. "It was just reflex. I couldn't leave him lying in the car and let him burn up."

by CNB