Blood now on anesthesiologists’ hands, too
To the editor:
As I read reports regarding the nature of Dr. Scott Young’s anesthesiology practice at the Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Clinic on Maryland Parkway (Wednesday Review-Journal), I am reminded of the short-sighted and arrogant comments made recently by individuals representing various professions, wherein they have criticized nurse anesthetists’ role in spreading hepatitis C by pointing out that “an anesthesiologist would not have allowed this (to happen),” and that an independent anesthesiologist would have gone toe to toe with Dr. Dipak Desai and prohibited dangerous injection practices.
I also read with great amusement Dr. Chris Millson’s assertion in the Las Vegas Sun that Dr. Young’s “case appears much different from what occurred at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, because Young was injecting into a ‘high-port’ IV line, relatively far from the patient’s vein, minimizing the risk of blood back flow.”
Health care workers minimize risk by practicing according to acceptable practices, not by unscientifically metering the risk. Dr. Millson’s statement, on its merits alone, is preposterous and is essentially synonymous to saying, “Well, she’s only a little bit pregnant.”
In addition, available on the World Wide Web is the Statement of Deficiencies prepared for the Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Clinic by the Nevada State Health Division. Within that report, it is clearly stated that the inspectors noted patients’ blood refluxing into the IV tubing line, thereby punching massive holes into Dr. Millson’s desperate attempt to mitigate the damage.
No matter how hard someone might try, you simply cannot talk your way out of every tight spot. Every health care practitioner who will read Dr. Millson’s statement will immediately recognize how ridiculous it is. How professionally embarrassing for Dr. Millson that he would even try to play upon the ignorance of the general public. Heal thyself, doctor.
George H. Cox
LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER IS A CERTIFIED REGISTERED NURSE ANESTHETIST.
Doctor survey?
To the editor:
For years now, the Review-Journal has done a commendable job conducting the judicial evaluation poll, in which practicing lawyers rate the qualifications and performance of our judges. It provides a very useful service for the citizens of Las Vegas by letting the voters know the candid and anonymous opinions of lawyers about the judges before whom they practice. That way, the voters can make better-informed decisions when casting their ballots for judges.
I think the time has come for the Review-Journal to put together an annual physician, hospital and medical center poll. The poll questionnaire would be submitted to physicians and nurses in the community. Physicians and nurses would give their candid ratings of other physicians, hospitals and medical centers. The participants would be anonymous, and each licensed medical person would only get to “vote” once (just like attorneys in the judicial evaluation poll).
This would give the good physicians and nurses in our community the opportunity to heap praise on the excellent physicians, hospitals and medical centers in our community and identify those physicians, hospitals and medical centers that need improvement — or worse — need to close their doors.
J.R. CROCKETT JR.
LAS VEGAS
Harry hater
To the editor:
As usual, Sen. Harry Reid’s statements regarding energy are both disingenuous and moronic (“Reid delivers fireside podcast,” Thursday). He blames the president for high energy prices while he and his ilk are against drilling for oil, against nuclear power, against coal-fired plants and any other reasonable source of energy.
Instead, he pushes ethanol, solar and other forms of energy that will result in energy shortages and power rates that will be double or triple of what we now pay.
Ed Epperson
LAS VEGAS
Initiative assault
To the editor:
We are deep in the midst of the silly season. Democratic hopefuls for president promise pie in the sky while the Republicans kowtow to the evangelical mulahs. Now there is initiative after initiative.
In keeping with the silly system, I propose an initiative to modify the state constitution so that it would require a supermajority of voters to pass any initiative. After all, in the last election, the smoking ban passed when about 30 percent of the electorate voted and a touch over 50 percent of those people voted for the initiative. So we have a law enacted by roughly 15 percent of the voters.
Our government was created to avoid tyranny of the majority. We now have silly by the minority.
The state Supreme Court can and does ignore initiatives it does not like and the casinos use the courts to void initiatives they do not like. Why should we not require the same when it come to fringe issues? Or we could just let the elected officials do their jobs when it comes to law.
At least the silly season in Carson City has repercussions for the elected. The initiative process is an assault on us all.
Dave Dwyer
LAS VEGAS
New American way
To the editor:
The home foreclosure fiasco has had a very detrimental effect on the overall U.S. economy. Some financial analysts are claiming that the credit crisis has or will drive the economy into a recession.
Some very greedy and (dare I say) stupid people bought houses that they clearly could not afford using no money down, interest-only loans. Some greedy and perhaps unethical lending institutions took advantage of this opportunity to give very shaky adjustable-rate mortgage loans to people who clearly could not afford even the starting payments.
Then, after two or three years, when the ARMs adjusted to the new and higher rate, the people who had signed up for these loans could no longer make their payments. At that point, the lenders began foreclosing on these loans and taking the houses. The borrowers started screaming, “They are taking my house,” and that, of course, got the attention of the politicians. Note that the house was never “theirs” in the first place — they bought it with no money down.
Now various levels of government and politicians are proposing all sorts of schemes to keep these subprime borrowers in “their” houses, and guess who will have to pay for these schemes? The people who bought houses they could afford, the people who pay taxes, the people whose retirement assets are invested in a dropping stock market.
Perhaps the subprime borrowers were not so stupid after all — they knew that when they could not pay their mortgages, the government would come along and bail them out. That is the new American way!
Walter F. Wegst
LAS VEGAS
Tar and feathers
To the editor:
As Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith and some others have so aptly pointed out, Nevada is a state with a mind-set of the Old West — the last frontier. As in those old days, the citizens are too frequently the ones who suffer.
However, in those old days, when the law and politicians did not do their jobs, the citizenry got out the tar and feathers.
What a lovely thought for Lisa Jones, chief of the Nevada Bureau of Licensure and Certification, down to Dr. Dipak Desai of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, who should be in Republic Services’ landfill.
Barbara Davis
LAS VEGAS
