ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: ALAN SAYRE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOW AN APPEALS COURT will consider whether an insurance company had the responsibility to tell Frank Deramus he had tested positive.
For Jody Deramus, the shock was finding out that her husband had AIDS. Her anger came from learning his life insurance company had known he was infected - and steadfastly refused to tell him.
For 18 crucial months before an independent diagnosis revealed why he was getting sick so often, the couple tried unsuccessfully to conceive a child, exposing Deramus to repeated unprotected sex.
Her husband died in 1991. So far, she says, she has tested negative for the virus - ``a miracle,'' as she puts it.
On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will consider whether Jackson National Life Insurance Co. had the responsibility to tell Frank Deramus he had tested positive for AIDS.
Jody Deramus, 53, who seeks unspecified damages, already has lost before a Mississippi federal judge, who ruled the company had no duty to disclose results of a medical test used solely to determine insurance eligibility.
In court papers, Jackson National has not said why it withheld the results - only that it was within its rights to do so under Mississippi law. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate of Jackson, Miss., agreed last September and dismissed the suit without a trial.
One possible reason for Jackson National's decision - that it hoped Frank Deramus would let his policy lapse and the company could then deny reinstatement - is suggested in Jody Deramus' appeal, which says a company memo instructed Jackson National employees to do just that.
``According to the judge, insurance companies can do this to anyone they want to, any time they want to. There's nothing we can do about it and there's something wrong with that,'' Jody Deramus said from Vienna, Va., where she now lives.
Collier Graham Jr., an attorney representing Jackson National, would not discuss the case.
Jody Deramus has started a foundation aimed at lobbying Congress to force disclosure of medical records to a policyholder or a person denied coverage.
In 1988, Frank Deramus, a Jackson lawyer, took a blood test as part of a routine examination required before Jackson National would consider increasing his coverage from $500,000 to $800,000.
The results showed he had been exposed to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Although he was denied additional coverage, in April 1988, for an unspecified medical reason, the company spurned numerous requests from him and his doctor for the test results, Jody Deramus alleges.
Shortly after learning the extra coverage had been denied, Frank Deramus came down with a series of maladies - flu he could not shake, fatigue, headaches, loss of memory.
With a family history of cancer, the couple sought medical help, an 18-month hunt that eventually involved 26 doctors and, finally, a move to Virginia to be closer to Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
Frank Deramus had been asked whether he had engaged in behavior at high risk for AIDS and always answered no, but doctors at Johns Hopkins added a new question: Had he been to Africa or been exposed to anyone from Africa?
In the mid-80s, he had been soaked in blood while helping an accident victim who had worked for about five years in Africa. He tested positive for AIDS in October 1989.
``We would see stories about AIDS in the newspapers and pass them by,'' Jody Deramus said. ``They didn't affect us. We didn't engage in homosexual behavior, extramarital sex or use drugs. AIDS didn't affect us. How wrong we were.''
When the other doctors found out about the diagnosis, their response was universal: ``We didn't fit the profile,'' Jody Deramus said.
Frank Deramus died in June 1991 at 51, nine days after Jackson National released its test results to his doctor.
In his ruling, Wingate said it would have made no difference even if Jackson Life had informed Deramus' husband of his condition, as AIDS remains incurably fatal. But the appeal contends Deramus' husband might have gotten life-extending treatment had he known of the test results.
In addition, finding out that her husband had AIDS while they were engaging in unprotected sex created stress-related problems for Jody Deramus that required psychiatric treatment, the appeal said.
While rejecting her husband, Jackson National granted Jody Deramus life insurance coverage in a simultaneous application, even though the company was aware of her husband's condition, her appeal said.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB