Kentucky man Bobby Russell sues after alleged HIV misdiagnosis: ‘It’s just the most difficult thing I’ve had to deal with my entire life’

A Kentucky man is suing the medical center that allegedly misdiagnosed him as HIV-positive in 2004.

For nearly nine years, Bobby Russell, 43, says he had sex only with HIV-positive men and took powerful, unnecessary medications that harmed his health. He even says he contemplated suicide and prepared for his own funeral arrangements before learning he never had the virus.

"It's just the most difficult thing I've had to deal with my entire life," Russell said as he cried to local station LEX18.

He filed a lawsuit in Fayette County Circuit Court on Friday seeking compensatory damages from the alleged culprits: the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the Bluegrass Care Clinic, the Fayette County Health Department and a list of doctors.

Russell, of Lexington, said he questioned the diagnosis in September 2004, which prompted his doctor to order another "confirmatory test," the Lexington-Herald Leader reported.

The lawsuit says that none of his doctors ever reviewed the second test's results, which came back negative, so the doctors allegedly ordered him to start treatment for HIV immediately.

At one point, he says, he was up to 12 different pills.

lex18.com

The result of the second test Russell discovered upon requesting all his medical records. He had sought the information to obtain veterans benefits.

The doctors also allegedly told Russell to avoid sexual relationships with people who do not have the disease.

Russell said he has had sex with "two or three" HIV-positive partners since his alleged misdiagnosis and has been in a committed relationship with one of them for two years.

The truth finally came to light after the Veterans Health Administration denied Russell's disability benefits, he said.

"The Veterans Administration had always said, 'You give us a confirmatory test, and we'll start these benefits for you,'" Russell told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "But nobody had a confirmatory test result to provide me to give to the Veterans Administration."

Russell requested all of his medical records from the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

"Upon this review, plaintiff concluded that not one medical provider ever actually ordered an appropriate full spectrum test for HIV — thus resulting in him being misdiagnosed for the condition of HIV," the lawsuit reads.

A medical center spokesman declined to comment, citing policy about pending litigation.

Although he believes he was misdiagnosed, as the lawsuit says, Russell plans to go out of state to find a "reputable" doctor for a thorough analysis he says he should have received nearly a decade ago.

mwalsh@nydailynews.com