Coverage of UCI’s liver program falls short
Re “How a Liver Unit Failed,” Nov. 12
I was disappointed by your omission of the most relevant statistics describing the performance of the liver transplant program at the UCI Medical Center: the mortality and transplant rates compared to the national averages. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, the 2004 mortality rate per year on the waiting list at UCI was 0.18, whereas the expected mortality rate was 0.13, and this difference was not deemed statistically significant. On the other hand, the 2004 transplant rate per year on the waiting list at UCI was 0.08, whereas the expected rate was 0.41, and this difference was considered highly statistically significant.
Instead, the statistics presented in the article were largely uninformative. The graph with the story was misleading without a comparison to the expected number of deaths. In addition, the SRTR report concluded that the one-year survival rate for patients who received a liver transplant at UCI was not significantly different from the expected survival rate.
For the informed reader to make an accurate appraisal of the extent of the problems, there must be a balanced presentation of the most relevant information.
TAU-MU YI
Irvine
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Re “Transplant Scandal Puts CEO on Leave,” Nov. 17
I am appalled at The Times’ handling of the problems at the UCI Medical Center’s liver transplant program. There were clearly difficulties with recruiting expectations and sharing of resources in trying to maintain a needed program in Orange County, but to impugn the integrity of Dr. Ralph Cygan in your Nov. 18 editorial (“Integrity and transplants”) without waiting for an investigation of the facts seems to me a rush to judgment unworthy of a world-class newspaper.
Cygan, clearly the sacrificial lamb, was immediately placed on administrative leave by this weak chancellor and a craven Board of Regents in a knee-jerk reaction to the crisis.
The Orange County community that depends on the UCI Medical Center is entitled to a serious investigation of what occurred. To start it by trashing the stellar 28-year career of Cygan does not seem an auspicious beginning.
JOAN KOSUTH
Tustin Hills
