PARENTS FILE NEW SUIT IN SON'S AIDS SUICIDE

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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993                   TAG: 9302020253
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MARION                                LENGTH: Short
PARENTS FILE NEW SUIT IN SON'S AIDS SUICIDE
The parents of a Glade Spring man who committed suicide under the mistaken impression that he had AIDS have filed an amended lawsuit against Smyth County Community Hospital and two doctors.
The original $3 million suit by Blaine and Jeanine Yarber was dismissed Jan. 12 on grounds that 21-year-old Christopher Steven Yarber's suicide was a criminal act, which prevented his estate from collecting damages.
Circuit Judge C.B. Flannagan also ruled that the suit did not demonstrate that the hospital and doctors might have failed to carry out a required duty to notify Yarber of AIDS test results.
Flannagan gave the family two weeks to file an amended suit.
The new suit says that Yarber was told he would get the results of the AIDS test he had sought at the hospital on July 22, 1990, in seven to 10 days.
A drug company courier misplaced the material and Yarber was never notified one way or another. He shot and killed himself Sept. 7, 1990, leaving a note stating his belief that he had AIDS.
The judge did not rule last month on whether the statute of limitations for filing a suit had expired but said he would do so if an amended suit was filed. Attorneys for the hospital and doctors will be given three weeks to respond to the new suit.
- Southwest bureau

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB