![]() A company doctor later examined Hall, saying he was fit to fly but should remain grounded due to the hysteria surrounding the virus at the time. However, company doctors sent him home after just half a day’s training.īruce Hall, a United FA based in Chicago, was also removed from duties in January 1984 after arriving for work following his AIDS diagnosis. Manker his job.”Īrmed with this information, he headed to United’s HQ in Chicago and was allowed back to work. ![]() In July 1983, after numerous examinations and blood tests, the doctor explained that Manker “Does not, at the moment, fit the case definition for even a prodrome of the AIDS syndrome… In the present context, I could see no clear justification for denying Mr. Despite displaying some symptoms, Maker had no official diagnosis. Others GroundedĪnother FA taken off the roster was New York-based Russ Manker. That was fine, there was no problem until six months later I was called into the office at eight o’clock in the morning by one of the supervisors and told, effective immediately, that I was on a medical leave of absence. I informed United, and if I was going to be taking chemotherapy for cancer it may involve some schedule conflicts. Traynor later spoke on the ‘The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,’ explaining his removal from flying duties, “A week after my diagnosis. However, despite the reassuring notice, the airline, like most others at the time, soon changed its sympathetic approach, removing Traynor and other FA’s diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, as well as those they merely suspected from their roles. On May 23, 1983, United produced a “safety bulletin” to reassure workers that the virus could not be contracted via casual contact. Traynor later explained how some of his colleagues were “quite concerned” about being around him after seeing the KS lesions and learning of his diagnosis, taking these concerns to the AFA. ![]() This began to spread to the FA community and the union that supported flight attendants at the time, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). However, as more and more people were diagnosed, the ensuing hysteria surrounding the virus grew, and attitudes changed. Initially, United allowed Traynor to continue working. Photo: Ted Quackenbush (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons. However, he also stated that despite the treatment required, he would still be capable of carrying out his duties. Groopman contacted UA on February 8, 1983, to inform them of his diagnosis. The pair were pioneering new treatment strategies for KS and other AIDS-related illnesses.Īs Traynor required weekly chemotherapy treatment for the KS, Dr. He shortened his name to Gär, adding the umlaut over the ‘a’ every time he signed his name, and in April 1973, Traynor became a flight attendant for UA.īut less than eleven years later, in December 1982, he was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS after developing Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS), a rare type of cancer caused by a virus that affects the skin, mouth, and sometimes internal organs.Īfter his diagnosis, Traynor came under the care of doctors Michael Gottlieb and Jerome Groopman from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Bowyer Clinic. ![]() Knowing he was “different,” Gary moved to Los Angeles, where he finally came out as homosexual. Gary Traynor was born in 1947 in Eugene, Oregon. Not only were patients given little chance of survival, but they also faced severe prejudice from the general public and their employers. One such person was Gär Traynor, a United Airlines (UA) flight attendant (FA) based in San Francisco, and this is his story. DALLAS - In the 1980s, a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS was a death sentence.
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