More doctors allowed to flout rules
To the editor:
Annette Wells' Saturday article chronicling the forced closure of the Shadow Mountain Surgical Center in Las Vegas raises questions relative to the laws governing the practice of physicians.
In reading the Administrative Codes and Statues, physicians' overriding objective is protecting the health and safety of patients. I leave it to the pundits to debate what rises to what level. But for me, it's simple. If you violate the rules, you put lives at risk.
Therefore, why did state inspectors allow the Shadow Mountain Surgical Center to stay open in March when the facility clearly had major infection control problems? They say the violations weren't serious enough. It's like a physician telling a patient his heart attack was "minor." It might not have killed the patient, but it certainly pointed to the existence of serious disease.
In my book, the center should have been closed until all violations were corrected and the public assured that physicians working at the clinic were properly credentialed.
What is the Board of Medical Examiners waiting for? Dr. David Malitz heads the surgical clinic. His address is listed as out of state. Why isn't his license being suspended until obvious questions are answered? They tell me he's entitled to due process. Fine. Suspend his license and let due process proceed.
We have two physicians who admitted to wrongdoing in a court of law in the Noel Gage case. That's pretty clear "moral turpitude." What is the Board of Medical Examiners doing about that?
Consider this before you go to bed tonight: If physicians will flout the rules and regulations for safe medical practice, how far will they go to ensure decisions for medical and surgical care are appropriate?
Will they do unnecessary operations, do unneeded invasive studies and lie to third-party payers?
You've been warned. Speak up or risk a permanent sleep.
Leonard Kreisler, M.D
LAS VEGAS
Dangerous place
To the editor:
Why haven't we seen the same level of outrage about the six deaths at the CityCenter project that we have seen about the endoscopy clinics and surgery centers?
It would be interesting to know the percentage of on-the-job fatalities at CityCenter compared with the percentage of soldier deaths in Iraq during the same period of time. There are many more soldiers in Iraq than workers at CityCenter -- thousands compared with hundreds. Which place is more dangerous?
We expect war to be unpredictably dangerous. Six deaths on a construction site is outrageous, a throwback to decades ago.
Christy Leskovar
LAS VEGAS
Doesn't get it
To the editor:
Sunday's Viewpoints section featured a quote from Sharon Moore, a UNLV teacher of African-American literature, which read, in part: "There's so much about the struggle for immigrant rights that smacks of the kinds of concerns slaves had and the rights of African-Americans to have access to higher education. The plight of the disenfranchised is universal."
How can one teach about African-American topics and not understand the fundamental difference between people who were brought to this country against their will -- in chains, to work without pay and to be bought and sold at the whim of their "owners" -- and people who, willfully and intentionally, broke the laws of the United States by illegally entering this country, not in chains, but of their own volition?
To make a statement like the one above displays a complete lack of understanding of both the circumstances surrounding illegal immigration and the plight of early slaves. Is this person really a teacher at UNLV?
David Adams
LAS VEGAS
The moral choice
To the editor:
Your Saturday wire service article, "Stem cells cure toddler," blurred the distinction between adult stem-cell research and embryonic stem-cell research.
When stem cells from the umbilical cord and bone marrow are used to treat a disease, they are called adult stem cells, as were those which successfully treated Nate Liao. No one had to die to save Nate's life. When embryonic stem cells are used, an unborn human being has to die in order to provide the necessary cells to save someone else.
During all the years that stem cell research has been going on, there have been numerous life-saving stories, such as Nate's, done with adult stem-cell research. In that same time span, to date, embryonic stem-cell research has successfully treated no one. Let's spend our research dollars on methods that are both successful and moral: adult stem-cell research.
Marie Jones
LAS VEGAS
