LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Nevada judge ruled that patients who weren't
made ill can claim emotional distress in a class-action lawsuit alleging a Las Vegas medical clinic exposed them to the hepatitis virus by reusing syringes and vials of medication.

The ruling by Clark County District Court Judge Allan Earl could expand the number of people seeking damages in lawsuits against the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. A court spokesman said
Wednesday the clinic currently faces 121 lawsuits.

The Southern Nevada Health District began notifying some 40,000 former clinic patients Feb. 27 to get blood tests to check for hepatitis B, C and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since then, health officials have traced seven acute cases of hepatitis C to the Endoscopy Center and one to an affiliated clinic, the Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center.

Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can cause stomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liver failure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly damage the liver.

Officials said they found 77 other people contracted hepatitis while they were being treated at the Endoscopy Center from March 2004 to last Jan. 11. But they said they could not conclusively link those cases to procedures at the clinic.

The judge on Tuesday rejected arguments by a lawyer for the clinic who said patients who didn't suffer actual injury should not be allowed to recover damages.

Earl said the mental anguish of potential exposure to incurable blood-borne illnesses during treatment at the now-closed clinic in Las Vegas could lead to physical ailments.

However, the judge dismissed claims that the clinic should be held liable under product liability and warranty laws. He said the clinic did not sell vials of anesthesia and other supplies to patients.

Will Kemp, a lawyer leading the class-action lawsuit, argued the clinic sold the anesthesia Propofol, billing patients $200 for 50 milliliter vials it bought for $33 apiece.

In an earlier ruling in a separate lawsuit, Earl dismissed Nevada Mutual Insurance Co., which provided medical malpractice insurance to the Endoscopy Center.

Lawyer Robert Cottle, representing patients who filed that lawsuit, claimed the insurer should have inspected and evaluated clinic procedures. Cottle also suggested Dr. Dipak Desai, majority owner of the Endoscopy Center and a former Nevada Mutual Insurance board member, might have used his influence to avoid oversight.

Alice Campos Mercado, a lawyer for the insurance company, said the company had no duty to the clinic's patients or to tell doctors what to do.

Desai has voluntarily surrendered his license to practice medicine in Nevada pending the results of the hepatitis investigations.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)