King/Drew Troubles Bring Varied Diagnoses

Re “The Troubles at King/Drew,” Dec. 5-9: Great investigation and reporting on a medical-care cancer metastasizing throughout the body of a community that deserves better. Those self-serving politicians, doctors and administrators who stubbornly condone this travesty and defend this mess should illustrate their confidence in King/Drew by having their own evaluations and surgical procedures done there. However, I don’t think there would be many volunteers to show their ultimate solidarity with this bedlam. The Times is doing a commendable job in exposing not only this medical mess but the hypocrisy of the related politicians as well.

Gary Rudnick

Palm Desert

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The responsibility for the problems at King/Drew lies with the county and its Department of Health Services, which has over several years systematically dismantled the medical center, eliminating hundreds of positions and failed to provide adequate resources to care for the community’s patients, some of the neediest and most medically underserved in the state.

National, neutral regulatory bodies have laid the blame for the shortcomings and accreditation problems on inadequate resources and inadequate and inadequately trained personnel. The responsibility for providing these resources lies with the county and its administrators, who have either ignored or rejected over 1,200 requests for critically needed personnel. The county -- for reasons it alone is aware of -- has systematically dismantled the medical center, in essence programming its failure.

David H. Martin

Attorney for Friends

of King Drew

Beverly Hills

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The article highlighted the problems at King/Drew and how the involvement of the community and its leaders might be related to some of them. It is indeed unfortunate that many situations can’t be dealt with for fear of the racist label or being labeled one. This form of ethnic pride can only hurt the community and possibly close the hospital it wants to save.

Norman Lawson

Huntington Beach

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Kudos to The Times for doing the Board of Supervisors’ job for it. The picture is becoming increasingly clear: Patients continue to die at King/Drew because the Board of Supervisors obviously hasn’t got the guts to stand up to the political correctness and the false cries of racism that are hurled at the supervisors any time even the most timid question is raised about what goes on in that pathetic hospital. Nothing will change until the Board of Supervisors puts patient care first -- ahead of greedy and incompetent doctors and administrators, do-nothing employees and those community “activists” who strangely believe that a murderous hospital is better than no hospital, just because it’s located within the black community.

Richard Zuelch

Lakewood

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Re “One doctor’s long trail of dangerous mistakes,” Dec. 7: Sometimes there are articles that simply defy comprehension. This was certainly one of them. I’m not sure which party is more pathetic, the horribly incompetent Dr. Dennis G. Hooper or the disgusting hospital administrators who did absolutely nothing about his gross negligence for over three years, even though clear and perfect evidence was put before them.

While reading the article, I was thinking that surely Hooper would have his license revoked and possibly be imprisoned; as his numerous misdiagnosis contributed to people losing their savable lives, etc. To find out that Hooper is still employed as a pathologist in San Antonio is beyond belief. If there is justice in this world, Hooper and the hospital administrators will be jailed and barred from their previous line of work for life.

Gregg Freeman

Simi Valley