Summary

In Kerins, a patient sued a surgeon, seeking compensation for the emotional distress she had suffered upon discovering that the surgeon infected with the AIDS virus had performed an operation on her. After declining to limit a plaintiff's right to recover emotional damages to cases where the plaintiff alleges and proves actual exposure, the court stated that the reasonable window of anxiety, for which recovery was proper, closes "after the plaintiff has had sufficient opportunity to determine with reasonable medical certainty that he or she has not been exposed to or infected with the AIDS virus."