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P, a registered nurse at Faxton Hospital in Utica, was stuck by a needle contaminated with the blood of an AIDS patient. The patient, an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility, was receiving medication and fluids intravenously. The inmate became agitated and irrational, removed his oxygen mask, and dislodged the needle on the intravenous apparatus installed on his left arm. Following a grand-mal seizure, the patient became even more combative. While attempting to restrain the patient, the hospital staff requested assistance from two correction officers who were present, but they refused to intervene. P and three of her fellow workers managed to return the patient to his hospital bed and attempted to apply leather restraints. The inmate again became very agitated. Realizing that the contaminated needle was within the patient's grasp, one of the nurses let go of his left leg in an attempt to secure the needle. As she retrieved it, the patient's leg jerked, bumping the nurse's arm and driving the needle into the gloved hand of P, who was restraining the patient. The correction officers stood by, clear of the patient's bed, and offered no assistance. P tested negative for HIV immediately, but upon a retest in February of 1989, she tested positive for it. Ps commenced this negligence action D. Expert testimony established that the average individual infected with HIV will develop full-blown AIDS within eight to ten years. P's condition appeared to be progressing more rapidly than most. The court determined that P would be likely to develop AIDS within the next four or five years and that her reasonable life expectancy would be through 1997. The court further determined that Jane Doe would suffer for a 14-month period from one or more of the 'opportunistic illnesses' which define AIDS, and would thereafter die. P was incur a great deal of suffering because AIDS patients 'don't drop dead. They die one cell at a time. They die weighing ninety pounds … looking like they came out of Auschwitz. It's a very slow death'. The court found that in 1991, P's earnings were $29,616, that P would cease working in 1996 due to disability from AIDS and that P had a work-life expectancy from 18 to 24 years. The Court of Claims determined that, based on the failure of the correction officers to intervene in the struggle, D breached its duty to provide reasonable security to the hospital staff and that D's negligence was the sole proximate cause of the injuries. The Court of Claims awarded P a total of $4,354,550 in damages but denied in part P's claim for future economic loss, without prejudice to the right of her distributees to maintain a wrongful death action for pecuniary loss subsequent to her death. Both parties appealed. Ps contend that the court erred in failing to make a complete award for future economic loss. P claims that the future economic damages should not be discounted to present value, as it would deprive her of property without due process of law. D contends that the damage awards for pain and suffering and for loss of consortium are excessive, but concedes that the court erred in failing to make a complete award for Jane Doe's future economic loss.

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