LETTERS: System fails in death of 7-year-old boy

To the editor:

I was deeply saddened when I read the article about 7-year-old Roderick “RJ” Arrington, and what he had to endure (“Prosecutor details weeks of abuse in child’s death,” Wednesday Review-Journal). How could anyone hurt a child? This is something I will never understand. It doesn’t matter what he did or didn’t do, no child deserves that kind of treatment.

If there is even suspected child abuse, police should be contacted immediately. There was evidence of abuse. Right now, the parents could be sitting in jail dealing with the consequences, and RJ could be receiving some kind of counseling while living in a safe foster situation, moving on with his life. But key people didn’t take action and see it for the emergency situation that it was, so now he is no longer with us.

My heart just sank, not only when I read what the parents had done, but the fact that the school tried to save his life and nobody saw it as an emergency situation.

The boy could still be alive today if not for the inaction of the child welfare hotline and social workers. The poor boy died just two days later. That was plenty of time for police to have been called and for Child Protective Services to take action. I am so heartbroken that the system failed this poor child.

ELLENY PURVIANCE

LAS VEGAS

Ebola lawsuit

To the editor:

Marlene Drozd’s letter noted that she was appalled that Thomas Duncan’s family was able to sue the Dallas hospital where he died of Ebola (“Ebola lawsuit,” Nov. 18 Review-Journal). I am appalled that the family did not get more money in the settlement.

This hospital sent him home after his original visit to its emergency room because the physician did not bother to actually read his entire chart. Or maybe it was just the fact that hospital personnel were too stupid to read the news about Ebola with regard to travel from certain African countries.

But I suspect hospital workers just saw a poor black immigrant who might not have the money to pay his bill.

When they did finally admit him to their wonderful hospital, it was too late to save his life. Not only did he get substandard care, but the hospital managed to put its own nurses in danger. Thank goodness the two nurses who were exposed to Ebola were taken to hospitals equipped to save their lives.

Of course, Mr. Duncan is the villain for bringing his family to this country, hoping for a better life. Maybe his family will take the pittance they got from this hospital and move to a country that actually believes that, rich or poor, black or white, you are entitled to the best health care possible.

PATRICIA FRUGE

LAS VEGAS

Obamacare and power

To the editor:

I’m inclined to agree that many American voters are stupid because they voted for Barack Obama, but that’s not completely fair, because he might not have been elected president if the Bush administration hadn’t been such an abomination.

Obamacare is the epitome of socialism, which I see as a kissing cousin of communism. A major factor in the raging debate over its passage had to do with the commerce clause. It took the Supreme Court to break the gridlock, and in doing so, the court seriously eroded a cornerstone of the American experience: our freedom of choice.

This was done by way of a single vote cast by Chief Justice John Roberts, a possible egomaniac in robes who owed his career to Ronald Reagan, archenemy of all that Obamacare stands for. Think very hard about this, because it is quite dangerous for any one person to have such an inordinate amount of power.

FRED BILELLO

LAUGHLIN