Almaraz

Services for Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, a surgical oncologist, wil be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home Inc., 1050 York Road.Dr. Almaraz died Friday at his home in Parkton after a lonillness. He was 41.Born in San Antonio, he received a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's University there in 1971. He earned his medical degree and a master's degree in microbiology from the University of Texas in 1975 and a doctorate from George Washington University in 1981.After completing a surgical internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief of surgical oncology and endocrinology until 1985, when he began a private practice.

More than 30 former patients of a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon who died of AIDS filed lawsuits yesterday against the hospital and the doctor's estate, claiming they have suffered emotional distress while worrying that they might contract the disease.The filing of the lawsuits -- which seek a total of $640 million from the hospital and the estate of Dr. Rudolph Almaraz -- comes eight months after the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and ruled that physicians infected with the human immunodeficiency virus may be held liable if they fail to disclose their conditions.

Five months after the state health department announced it would investigate whether a former Johns Hopkins surgeon transmitted the AIDS virus to any patients, the study has barely begun and officials balk at even estimating when it will be completed.Yesterday, Acting Health Secretary Nelson J. Sabatini confirmed that the department has yet to contact any of the late Dr. Rudolph Almaraz's patients about participating in the study.Original plans, announced last December in the heat of intense publicity and public debate over the Almaraz case, called for the study to becompleted by June.

Advanced genetic testing has confirmed that Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon who died of AIDS in November 1990, did not pass the disease on to any of his patients, medical investigators say.In an article in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, the investigators said the risk of an HIV-positive surgeon infecting a patient on the operating table is less than one infection for every 1,000 hours of surgery.An editorial in the Journal, however, cautions that the studies don't rule out the possibility that there are "particularly infectious" surgeons or dentists who can cause "clusters" of HIV cases.

An article in Saturday's editions of The Sun implied that the state health department had identified Dr. Rudolph Almaraz as one of 15 physicians in the state who has been diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Although Dr. Almaraz did die of AIDS and was one of the 15 physicians counted by the state, his name was neither confirmed nor denied by the health department, whose AIDS reporting system is based on confidentiality.Citing a "policy vacuum" regarding the issue of health-care workers with AIDS, Johns Hopkins Hospital officials called yesterday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to issue specific policies.

Viewers may notice something strange about tonight's "48 Hours" broadcast on health care workers with AIDS: CBS News abandons the program's usual format.Instead of going on-location for two days (in television time) of intense subject coverage, tonight's show (8 p.m., Channel 11) is a series of reports from various cities and without any time-frame. The reports (at least those included in an unfinished preview tape) are grouped around two issues: health care providers with AIDS who keep that information from their patients; and the difficulty AIDS patients have finding doctors and dentists willing to treat them.

I KNEW Rudy Almaraz, the Johns Hopkins surgeon who died of AIDS. I knew him not as a patient, not as a colleague, but as a friend's rescuer.It started one afternoon when a young unmarried friend, terrified by a lump in her breast, came to my office in tears. She had been living with the implicit dread of cancer for more than a week. A general surgeon had recommended a mastectomy. Frightened, she hurriedly consulted a preeminent surgical oncologist who had just told her he would have to remove her right breast.

A Baltimore lawyer has dropped plans, at least for the time being, to try to force a New York hospital to pay compensation for the AIDS disease that took the life of prominent John Hopkins surgeon Dr. Rudolph Almaraz.The attorney, Marvin Ellin, had been planning to file formal claims in New York against Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, seeking workmen's compensation on the theory that Dr. Almaraz contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome while performing surgery at the center in late 1983.

Flooded by more than 200 inquiries from patients of a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon who died of AIDS, the hospital has begun mailing a "peace of mind" letter to an estimated 1,800 women he had treated or operated on over the last six years.The surgeon, Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, who specialized in breast cancer treatment, died Nov. 16."You should be reassured knowing that there is very little chance that you could have become infected," says the letter signed by Dr. Hamilton Moses III, the hospital's vice president for medical affairs.

Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, the Johns Hopkins breast cancer surgeon who died of AIDS last month, continued to operate on patients after he knew he had the disease, his widow said yesterday.Speaking publicly for the first time, Betty Almaraz defended his decision in an interview with The Sun."He was a talented and gifted man. The risks [of his transmitting AIDS to his patients] are minimal. My husband saved many, many lives, weighed against the infinitesimal risk," said Mrs. Almaraz, whose husband, Rudolph, died Nov. 16. "If he had stuck anyone at all, he would have been the first to tell anyone."

A seven-month investigation has yielded no evidence that any patients contracted the AIDS virus from a Johns Hopkins doctor who performed surgery while infected and later died of the disease, state health officials said yesterday.Although officials could not absolutely rule out the possibility, they said available evidence strongly suggests that the late Dr. Rudolph Almaraz infected no one during a medical procedure."When you put it all together, you have an overwhelming amount of evidence to support this conclusion," said Dr. Audrey S. Rodgers, chief of the health department's center for AIDS epidemiology.

A dentist who treated inmates at the Maryland Penitentiary died recently of AIDS, sparking concern in the state Division of Correction that he may have infected inmates, according to several sources.Gov. William Donald Schaefer discussed the issue this morning at a hastily arranged meeting with corrections officials, including public safety Secretary Bishop L. Robinson.The dentist, Victor Joseph Luckritz, died May 7 of complications from AIDS, according to a death notice in The Sun. Luckritz, who was 47 when he died, provided dental services in the prison system in 1988-90, according to a source.

Five months after the state health department announced it would investigate whether a former Johns Hopkins surgeon transmitted the AIDS virus to any patients, the study has barely begun and officials balk at even estimating when it will be completed.Yesterday, Acting Health Secretary Nelson J. Sabatini confirmed that the department has yet to contact any of the late Dr. Rudolph Almaraz's patients about participating in the study.Original plans, announced last December in the heat of intense publicity and public debate over the Almaraz case, called for the study to becompleted by June.

A Baltimore lawyer has dropped plans, at least for the time being, to try to force a New York hospital to pay compensation for the AIDS disease that took the life of prominent John Hopkins surgeon Dr. Rudolph Almaraz.The attorney, Marvin Ellin, had been planning to file formal claims in New York against Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, seeking workmen's compensation on the theory that Dr. Almaraz contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome while performing surgery at the center in late 1983.

Viewers may notice something strange about tonight's "48 Hours" broadcast on health care workers with AIDS: CBS News abandons the program's usual format.Instead of going on-location for two days (in television time) of intense subject coverage, tonight's show (8 p.m., Channel 11) is a series of reports from various cities and without any time-frame. The reports (at least those included in an unfinished preview tape) are grouped around two issues: health care providers with AIDS who keep that information from their patients; and the difficulty AIDS patients have finding doctors and dentists willing to treat them.

I KNEW Rudy Almaraz, the Johns Hopkins surgeon who died of AIDS. I knew him not as a patient, not as a colleague, but as a friend's rescuer.It started one afternoon when a young unmarried friend, terrified by a lump in her breast, came to my office in tears. She had been living with the implicit dread of cancer for more than a week. A general surgeon had recommended a mastectomy. Frightened, she hurriedly consulted a preeminent surgical oncologist who had just told her he would have to remove her right breast.

A widely respected surgeon who specialized in treating women with breast cancer died of AIDS two weeks ago, and Johns Hopkins Hospital is planning to send letters this week offering free AIDS tests to an estimated 1,800 patients on whom he operated.The doctor, Rudolph Almaraz, died Nov. 16 at age 41.Confirmation that Dr. Almaraz died of AIDS came Friday when his family's lawyer, Marvin Ellin, told The Sun, "He had AIDS, and he died of AIDS."Mr. Ellin said Dr. Almaraz told him he was exposed to the disease in the course of operating on an AIDS patient in New York about seven years ago while on a fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The senior surgeon at an operation in which Dr. Rudolph Almaraz reportedly contracted AIDS says there has never been any surgical accident in his career "that could have put me or my colleagues at risk for contracting AIDS."Dr. William Knapper of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said in a written statement to The Sun, "It is clear that the case in question was a routine procedure that was performed with our full knowledge of the patient having AIDS."Dr. Almaraz, a prominent breast cancer surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome last month.