I have worked with Dr. Paul E. Austin, author of "Something for the Pain," this year's Durham Reads selection, for nearly three decades with unassigned and my own patients in the Emergency Department at Durham Regional Hospital.
The case of "Kelly" shows the discordance between electrocardiographic and laboratory values and the real state of the coronary arteries. I received my M.D. from Saint Louis University in Missouri almost 50 years ago, before all the new and advanced technology, and the emphasis was always on signs and symptoms and not on laboratory values. Besides, this patient had two great risk factors -- smoking and a positive family history for heart disease.
Dr. Austin is to be congratulated for his honesty in apologizing to his wife.
Durham Reads is to be congratulated for selecting Dr. Austin's book.
JUAN JOSE ALVA
Durham
Reform is DOA
This administration is rushing through legislation that will destroy the America we all know and love. We are seeing the fruition of Obama's appointments conveniently putting claims on the White House agenda.
Eric Holder, who has been appointed attorney general, has an agenda rather than keep us all safe, he so conveniently wants to continue the irrelevant pursuit of President Obama's predecessor.
This is nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the relevant issues already on the table such as socialized or universal health care.
Let it be known that we are thousands all across this country and we know our rights. Our Founding Fathers made this known, that a more powerful central government would upset the people's Constitution and Bill of Rights. Anything unbalanced borders on socialism and fascism!
We the people voted for change we could believe in. We are getting poor substitute for the truth as our rights are fast eroding away.
Legislation is coming after us like a "bat out of hell" and we will not stand by and see our country go down mercilessly at the hands of self-serving scoundrels.
I have but three words for this administration and their legislation on government-run health care. "DOA."
MARGARET HOOD
Durham
Patriots say 'Stop!'
I have been astonished in recent months by the pure hypocrisy of the left in this country. Supposedly, liberals, or "progressives" as they now like to call themselves, are the enlightened, open-minded, tolerant people. We conservatives are the narrow-minded, backward thinking, ignorant hicks.
In reality, this has never been the case, but it is how it has always been portrayed. However, since the election of Barack Obama, everything has changed. It used to be that dissent was the highest form of patriotism. In fact, I used to see it proudly displayed as a bumper sticker on almost every liberal's environmentally friendly car.
Now it seems dissent is no longer patriotic, but is now "racist" and according to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, both Democrats, "un-American."
The Tea Party and town hall protesters have not been celebrated as concerned citizens voicing their opinions, but instead called "angry mobsters" and "racists." The truth is that the people who attended the tea parties and the town halls are patriotic Americans. They are average citizens who are tired of their hard-earned money going to bailouts and the so-called "stimulus package."
The American people see the deficit growing. Both the White House and the Congressional Budget Office predict the deficit for this year to exceed $1.6 trillion, and by 2019 to reach a staggering $9 trillion.
They see health care reform and cap and trade being rammed through, and they are saying, "Stop!"
JASON CHAMBERS
Durham
