US: Man suing doctor after being diagnosed with ‘chronic homosexuality’
A man is suing a doctor, after he was diagnosed with the “chronic condition” of homosexuality in a routine physical.
Los Angeles-based Michael Moore, 46, said he discovered the note on his medical records after he underwent a physical with Dr Elaine Jones of Torrance Health Association in April last year.
When he noticed the note, he confronted Dr Jones and asked her to remove it, but she defended her diagnosis, claiming the medical community goes “back and forth” on whether homosexuality is considered an illness.
Homosexuality was removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 1973.
Mr Moore claims he was at one point assured that the record had been deleted, to find out later that it was still present.
He said: “It was infuriating. It was painful.
“I gave them chance after chance and this time I’m not going to be silent. My silence would condone this activity.”
“I don’t want any gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual ever to hear from a doctor that their normal and healthy sexuality is anything other than that.”
The suit alleges the company “engaged in a pattern of deceit and medical record doctoring in an attempt to establish that they had earlier removed and retracted the defamatory content, when in fact they had not removed and retracted the defamatory content until the latter part of May 2014.”
A statement to NBC from Torrance Health Association said the diagnosis was recorded because of “human error”, and that “upon notification by the patient the record was corrected.”
It continues: “Due to the highly complex software used in creating an electronic medical record, the incorrect code continued to exist in an electronic table only.
“As a result, this incorrect diagnosis code was included on a paper copy of the record, which was provided only to the patient.”
Moore is seeking both punitive and compensatory damages.
