Doctor’s Trial

Re “Doctor’s Trial Begins in Baby’s Death,” Feb. 4: There is a criminal in this story that is being disregarded. It appears pretty obvious that Dr. Wolfgang Schug dealt incompetently and negligently with Cody Burrows, the child who died of dehydration from rotavirus, a common infection that puts thousands of infants and toddlers into the hospital every winter.

However, it also appears obvious that Cody did not have a medical home, a pediatrician who regularly cared for him and who could have seen him early in the course of his illness, educated his mother about the early signs of dehydration and intervened before he was in extremis. His mother used an emergency room instead of a doctor’s office, a situation that is too common today.

While trillions are being spent on “managed care” organizations acquiring each other with patients’ dollars, millions of people, most of them children, have inadequate or no medical care except in crises. If any good can come out of this tragic case, perhaps it will prompt us to examine our priorities and redirect health care dollars, which are not being “saved” but merely rerouted by insurance companies, to take care of those who need it most.

LORAINE M. STERN MD

Newhall