Where were you 25 years ago? Let me know your recollections regarding the announcement of the new virus now called HIV/AIDS.

From: Gary Wolfe, RN,CCM, Salinas CA

I was working in Los Angeles when the AIDS pandemic started. For a couple of years we had been seeing young men come to the emergency room very sick — usually with respiratory distress and/or pneumonia. They quickly went down hill and died. Some were put on ventilators but that did not help much. It was a strange time when we didn’t know what to do for these patients and then they were dead. We then started hearing about the gay disease and GIRD. All of that is now what we know has HIV/AIDS. Early on with AIDS, we had very poor treatment. We tried to treat symptoms but never got ahead of the disease and people continued to die. With the introduction of combination therapy, treatment and outcomes got better. For people who have access and our adherent to their treatment regime, life is much better. The world wide situation continues to be bleak. Developing countries rarely have access to drugs. Many children become orphans because their parents have died of AIDS.

From: Carol Cohen RN, ACRN, Brooklyn,New York

Where was I 25 years ago? “25 years ago I was working on a med-surg floor where all the patients who were diagnosed with fever of unknown origin (FUO) were in isolation. Later we would learn that these patients all had HIV/AIDS. One patient in particular kept asking me” why was I not wearing the space suit isolation as everyone else?” I informed him, I can not catch what he has by just being in the room talking with him. I spent a lot of time with this patient and because of him I specialized in HIV/AIDS and I am still involved today, locally and nationally. In the beginning, all the patients admitted to my HIV unit all died and we made this a happy place for them. We celebrated every holiday as a group and even had weddings (2) and a communion party on the unit. Fortunately, after a few years, we were able to offer treatment to these patients and not everyone died. If I had it to do over again, I would not change where I worked or the type of patients I cared for!”

From: Janice Ellison, RN, CCM, President of Tennessee Valley Chapter of CMSA

“When HIV first came in the public’s notice 25 years ago, I was working in home health. As with most of the other nurses, I was very concerned about my personal safety working with HIV patients. My only patient with AIDS was a young man on peritoneal dialysis. I was very scared as I worked with him. His mother did most of his care until he passed away. We’ve learned a lot since then.”

From: Gretta Emery, RN, BSN, Medical Case Manager, Knoxville, TN

I had been a nurse for just one year in 1981, and worked in NICU. I had not paid attention to that news until much later when I realized we didn’t wear gloves for much of anything we did!! I still think about that now.

From: Donna C Haynes RN, CCM

My husband actually had a male office manager who retired but became ill suddenly and died within a couple of weeks. No AIDS diagnosis was made at the time, but in looking back, he had all the symptoms. The cause of death was said to be pneumonia. How sad it is that so many have died from the disease. Thanks for sharing your new CM site with me.

From: Diana Hart RN, LNHA, Director of QA and Education

I was a nurse working for Ben Taub Hospital in Houston. We had several unexplained Pneumonia cases and an active homosexual community.

It was sad to see some of them die; they were so forthright and compelling. Once a patient told me that he was gay his entire life, literally unheard of at that time, but true for him.

As I held his hand; and he had DIC, so I was constantly injecting him with blood and platelets, we prayed. He died shortly thereafter, and believe it or not, I felt some peace for him because his suffering had ended. I remember the blood; I remember pouring bleach on my scrubs; I remember the x-ray tech pouring bleach on films. We didn’t know what to do.

We’ve come so far with AIDS research now. It’s not known as a “gay disease.” Thanks to everyone, including that young man who taught me what true compassion is.

From: Jo Anne A. Tuccio

I remember working in a mixed medical/surgical ICU in Bridgeport, CT. We often had inmates from the local jail brought in, in shackles, with police guards, who needed intensive medical, surgical or nursing care. Several of them presented in acute respiratory failure secondary to PCP pneumonia. The also usually had Kapoi’s sarcomas, which were usually just called a lesion. We would care for them without using gloves for their personal care, suctioning endotracheal tubes or applying clean dressings. Many times I remember their lesions oozing, and being told to just apply a dry dressing. No masks, no protective gowns, only hand washing as a protection. It truly is by God’s grace that I am not HIV+, as my technique, although appropriate for that time, would not be considered any bit appropriate today.