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11 Facts About Robert Rayford

1.

Robert Rayford was born on February 3,1953, in St Louis, Missouri.

2.

Robert Rayford had severe swelling of the testicles and pelvic region, which later spread to his legs, causing a misdiagnosis of lymphedema.

3.

Robert Rayford had grown thin and pale and suffered from shortness of breath.

4.

Robert Rayford told the doctors that he had experienced these symptoms since at least late 1966.

5.

Robert Rayford declined a rectal examination request from hospital personnel, and was described as uncommunicative and withdrawn.

6.

At one point Robert Rayford claimed he was "the stud of all time".

7.

Robert Rayford had increased difficulty breathing and his white blood cell count had plummeted.

8.

Robert Rayford developed a fever and died of pneumonia at 11:20 pm on May 15,1969.

9.

The last known tissue samples of Robert Rayford were in a New Orleans lab and inadvertently destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, preventing further testing.

10.

Robert Rayford never traveled outside the Midwestern United States and told doctors that he had never received a blood transfusion.

11.

Robert Rayford is believed to have never ventured into cosmopolitan cities such as New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, where the HIV-AIDS epidemic was first observed in the United States.