Misdiagnosed with HIV, man gets his life back
It’s a scary scenario that at one time or another most people have run through their minds: what would I do if I was diagnosed with HIV? For one Belize City man that fantasy became reality–or so he thought. Ann-Marie has a story that reminds us that when your life is on the line it always pays to get a second opinion.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Robert Popper was once a hardworking young man who lived with his family in Belize City. Like most Belizean guys with few responsibilities, he loved partying and having fun.
That lifestyle came to a screeching halt in June of 1999 when twenty-eight year old Popper said he fell ill and visited the emergency room of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Robert Popper, Misdiagnosed with AIDS
“This female doctor that was attending to me she didn’t talk English and mostly Spanish. She took me in a room with another doctor, Dr. Coyi, and he was the translator because I don’t understand Spanish and she doesn’t talk English. She asked me if I was married, if I have kids. I told her no, and she asked how old I was. Right there and then they told me that I have…they didn’t used the word AIDS, they said that I’m HIV positive.”
Popper, who is a homosexual, said he had no reason to doubt he was HIV positive because he was passing blood in his stool. That piece of news turned his life upside down.
Robert Popper
“My friends got to know me somebody who had HIV/AIDS around the neighbourhood. They started to draw away from me, watch me and skin up their mouth. They didn’t want to talk to me, call me dead street, anytime I’ll die.”
And when he thought he was going to die, he walked off his job at the Customs. His home life also changed radically.
Robert Popper
“My sister never did push me out or tell me to come out the house. But every time I used the bathroom, sometimes the blood mess up the bathroom and things like that, and they start to clean that bathroom…I got offended about it. First I ate good from them, and afterwards I started to eat out of disposable plates and disposable cups and things like that. I felt bad, and people around the neighbourhood and my friends they knew me as somebody with HIV/AIDS.”
Popper moved to Orange Walk where he thought he could live anonymously. However, it was only a few days before the word got around.
Robert Popper
“I stayed at my uncle for the first four to five days, then when he found out he confronted me about it. I told him no, and he found out. He packed my little kit bag, put it outside, and locked the door. When I went back home, I met my bag outside. So I started going to the park with my kit bag.
He found himself selling the contents of his kit bag to survive.
Robert Popper
“Sell my clothes to get food to eat. I even sell my kit bag. I was left with only one pants, one shirt and my Nike tennis that I was wearing at that time.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You didn’t go back to ask him for some food?”
Robert Popper
“No. I didn’t go back to ask him for nothing. I’d see him and he’d just, force hail me, like he’s ashamed of me.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Robert decided to make this park, Independence Plaza, his new home.”
This was where he’d wash the only suit of clothes he had on his back.
Robert Popper
“I put it on the cement to let it dry. Sometimes in only my boxers, I would stay right there and put on back my clothes. Sometimes some people come to the river early in the morning, and I’d put on the clothes and go sit in the park so that they didn’t see me like that.”
This was Popper’s way of life for over a year. However, it all changed when he was referred to the Alliance Against AIDS by a disabled man, who used to see him at the park. Rodel Beltran Perera, A.A.A.’s Executive Director, journeyed to Orange Walk to investigate and offer assistance.
Beltran-Perera told us he didn’t order a test because he went on the assumption that owing to his lifestyle, he was clearly HIV positive.
Rodel Beltran Perera, Executive Dir., A.A.A.
“We had just opened as a agency, and we knew of Bobby and his situation and his situation with his partner, the passing of his partner that had died from the disease, and through other persons that were involved with his life before the Alliance heard of him. I think that that was somewhat of a contributing factor in our decision in going out and helping him.”
Robert Popper
“I got admitted by Dr. Guerra at the Orange Walk Hospital. He admitted me, and when he admitted me, he said that I had pneumonia from sleeping in the park, that I was about to catch pneumonia, and I have HIV/AIDS also”
Ann-Marie Williams
“They didn’t give you an AIDS test?”
Robert Popper
“When I got in the hospital up in Orange Walk, they never took an AIDS test of me, and up to now they never took and AIDS test.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“They just assumed.”
Robert Popper
Yeah. This guy took me in by the name of Rodel, he was the founder of Alliance Against AIDS, and Rodel said that I’m sick, I have HIV/AIDS, I need a place to stay.”
When we contacted Dr. Enrique Guerra by telephone at the Orange Walk Hospital, he said he only treated Popper for pneumonia. Pneumonia he had contracted as a result of months of living outdoors. He too admits he thought Popper was HIV positive and never sought his permission to test him.
Ann-Marie Williams
“Did it ever cross your mind anytime that…I need another test because maybe I don’t have AIDS. Did that cross your mind?”
Robert Popper
“No. All that was in my mind everyday I woke up, was that I have AIDS, I have AIDS, I’ll die.”
One woman, Antonette Castillo-Young, owner of J & A Medical Lab in Orange Walk, heard of Popper and was determined to prolong his life.
Antonette Castillo-Young, Owner, J & A Medical Lab
“When Robert came to me, the first thing I said was, who told you you’re HIV positive and where is the documentation that you’re HIV positive? He said the only report he has is lost and he doesn’t have it anymore. I said to come in to J & A AIDS Foundation, we need to create a file and there are two tests I’d like to do on you if you’ll allow me. I said you already know you’re HIV positive for the last two and a half years, but for my documentation, I need medical records on you. He gave me permission and said do your tests, which was an HIV screening and a complete blood count. We did the HIV screening here at J & A Lab, and it was negative.”
Castillo-Young, a certified medical lab technologist and AIDS counsellor originally from Orange Walk, repeated the test a second time at her lab using a combined method.
Antonette Castillo-Young
“The Eliza and confirmatory Western Blot, because it’s a combination that I’ve used through Abbot Diagnostic. When that happened I was not satisfied. I sent it to another private lab here in Orange Walk, the People’s Lab. That test came back negative.”
After the results were confirmed negative at People’s Lab, she took Popper to Belize Medical Associates and the Central Lab. After all confirmed that Popper was HIV negative, Young wanted some answers from K.H.M.H.; an unnamed nurse assisted them.
Robert Popper
“She sneaked the record so was can see it. In my file, it marked HIV positive. So a different reply from Miss Ann’s test that she took and the People’s Lab. So Miss Ann asked the young lady if she could speak to one of my doctors…to talk to Dr. Arriaga. They said that that time he wasn’t there, he got his foot broken and was on leave or something. Then we asked for the next doctor, Dr. Coyi, and they told me he was in San Pedro or somewhere.”
Popper said one of the doctors who came to examine the records was startled to see his recent tests were negative, while K.H.M.H.’s files listed his as HIV positive.
Robert Popper
“They drew blood from me again, went across the lab, which was like between 12:00 and 1:00. He even called to let them do the test. They did the test and we got back the results, not the same day, but we got the results negative. We let them fax it to us in Orange Walk and we went back to Belize to pick up the original and take it back to the doctor.
They dig up back in the lab and they found a test from me from 1999 that they took. The test was negative, but in the file in the file at the hospital, they had me down as positive.”
This is the same test K.H.M.H.’s CEO, Dr. Alvaro Rosado said Popper did not pick up in June of 1999.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, CEO, K.H.M.H.
“He was never treated for HIV or related…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“He just told the doctor he’s HIV positive.”
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“That’s what our records show.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why? Why would somebody just tell a doctor he’s HIV positive, especially if he’s not coming in for AIDS medication or so? People don’t usually want people to know that.””
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“I have no idea, but the doctor was very meticulous. I’m very proud of that doctor now, very meticulous in writing the records.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“And didn’t test him and very meticulous, didn’t even order a test.”
Besides the doctor not ordering a test, Popper could not even get his own medical records.
Robert Popper
“We asked him if we could get my records. He told me no. We asked him if could get a copy of the record, he said we could give him time and he will call Miss Young when we want the copy. And when we get the copy he will be there, Miss Young will be there, I will be there with a nurse. It hasn’t come yet. This is like three or four weeks ago.”
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“Instructions were, immediately prepare a copy of these records for them and they were told that it could be picked up the following week. They came back the following week and discussed with us. I am of the opinion that they had the records at that time, because we did review some records here. I am of the opinion they had the records. If they didn’t, it’s probably because they didn’t come for it.”
Robert Popper
“It’s not easy for somebody to live with being HIV positive, that I thought I had for two and a half years. My loved ones left me, my friends turned their backs on me. I was on a world by myself. People who you’d think were your friends stray from you, your loved ones don’t want to be around you and those are the times when they were supposed to be around you, to sit down and talk with.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Are you mad at how your sister treated you?”
Robert Popper
“I’m mad not at how they treated me, I’m mad because they’re not really educated about it. If they were really educated about it, and they knew that I had it, they would have know how to treat me and how to deal with me.”
In the meantime, Popper with a second chance at life, keeps the results of his AIDS test close at hand–a reminder that one can never rely simply on assumptions. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Castillo-Young is setting up a foundation called “House of Hope” to assist AIDS patients who have been shunned in their communities. The facility’s first manager? Robert Popper.
