Transplant Center is bringing more organs to Maryland
In response to Judy LaSov's letter, "Health system has failed Maryland's transplant patients" (Aug. 9), I'd like to point out that 387 people received life-saving organ transplants during 1998 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical System.
Two hundred-four of those patients received kidney transplants. The patients received 226 locally recovered organs and 224 organs imported from other areas of the country.
Some patients received multiple organs and 51 locally recovered organs went to other areas of the country for transplant.
Both the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical System rank in the top 20 of all kidney transplant programs nationwide. Success breeds demand.
During 1998, the Transplant Resource Center of Maryland (TRC), the local organ procurement organization, recovered organs from 69 donors, a 30 percent increase over the previous year.
In 1998 TRC also recovered tissue -- bone, skin (for burn victims) tendons, veins, heart valves -- from 120 tissue donors, 23 more than in the previous year. These tissues are used for transplant procedures in most area hospitals.
Ms. LaSov noted that we were "warned" about possible sanctions from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). That's why we negotiated a payback program with UNOS last November.
In June, while we were continuing to reduce our "kidney debt," UNOS broke its agreement with us.
We have had more Maryland organ donors this year than at this time last year.
It's true that we all need to do even more. But ours is not a record of failure for Maryland's transplant patients.
It is a record of insufficient success for those waiting for a transplant -- the ones UNOS wants to punish.
But the more important problem, in Maryland and across the country, remains that we need more organ donors, more "Heroes for Life."
Marion Borowiecki
Baltimore
The writer is chief executive officer of the Transplant Resource Center of Maryland.
Without the Harborplace waterfront could be greener
The Sun's editorial naming James Rouse a "Marylander of the Century" asked, "Can you imagine Baltimore without Harborplace" ("James Rouse shaped our cities," Aug. 16)?
I certainly can. I imagine the harbor as a beautiful and larger version of Sam Smith State Park, which was there when I first came to Baltimore.
Then, the area around the water was greenery, with some of the park taken over by metered parking and some occupied by wholesale fruit and vegetable warehouses.
It doesn't take a landscape architect to see that the waterside should be a park. Mr. Rouse should have built his fast food and T-shirt shops away from the harbor, in some area that needed rehabilitation.
We could, then, have had a beautiful downtown park, with the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center and piers for antique boats and other small crafts.
Then, rather than a tourist attraction, downtown might have become more of an attraction for offices and residences.
Irving Garfinkle
Baltimore
Overreaction to drought could hurt state's economy
Once again, our governor's extreme response to a natural event has damaged the state's reputation.
The last time Gov. Parris Glendening did this, he elevated the Pfiesteria problem to a major scare. Although that issue has now faded, the scare's impact on our seafood and poultry industries has not.
The next time Perdue Farms Inc. or Tyson Foods Inc. makes an investment decision are they going to pick Maryland -- where they are under attack -- or a place where they are more welcome?
This summer the governor has focused national attention on Maryland as a state that cannot cope with a dry spell. When Coca-Cola Co. was looking to build a plant in Howard County, one of its major concerns was a reliable water supply.
They have not built their plant yet. What must they be thinking now?
No doubt the governor wants to appear to be a decisive politician, but the people of Maryland will pay the price for his posturing.
James R. Schulte
Ellicott City
Let's stop the whining over water-use restrictions
Can we please stop whining about water restrictions? They're inconvenient, but let's get a grip
I miss using my soaker hose to water my vegetable garden. And I wish I could fill up the wading pool or turn on the sprinkler for my handicapped child -- she can't do many things, but water play is one of her greatest joys.
But these are luxuries we can't afford now. We have been acting as if water is an infinite resource, and it is not.
Instead of whining that we can't wash our cars or water our lawns, we should develop some sense of perspective.
In other parts of the world, people barely have enough to survive, and here we are complaining that our lawns are turning brown. We should be ashamed.
Judi Hammett
Baltimore
Can grass survive if it isn't watered?
I find it interesting, but confusing, that according to Harold Kanarek, quoted on page 2E of the Aug. 14 Sun, not watering a lawn does not kill the grass ("Approach gardens with a dry eye").
However, the same day's paper reports on page 14B that lack of watering does kill the grass on golf courses, according to Peter Dernoeden ("Golf course water cuts 'unfair' ").
Perhaps The Sun can find a third expert to explain this anomaly.
F. L. Terhune
Severna Park
Hospital's closing prompts deja vu all over again
The Sun's article "Historic hospital in West Baltimore closes it doors" (Aug. 2) gave me a sense of deja vu. It took me back to 1986, when The Evening Sun published my opinion column on the closing of Provident Hospital.
The Liberty Medical Center's closing caused me the same heartache I experienced 13 years ago when we lost Provident. When I read that the magnificent building on Liberty Heights was to be demolished, I cried.
The thing that hurts most about Liberty's closing is that the hospital was done in by the doctors and administrators to whom its care had been entrusted.
In his recent letter, William Jews, one of the brokers of the merger between Lutheran and Provident hospitals that created Liberty wrote, "Liberty Medical Center's many friends need not mourn its passing. Rather they should celebrate its historic role in serving the health needs of the citizens of West Baltimore" ("Liberty Medical Center honored for its service," Aug. 12).
I choose to mourn. The hospital where I had my appendectomy, recovered from acute rheumatic fever and gave birth to my son will soon be reduced to a pile of rubble.
Magdalene B. Fennell
Baltimore
B&O; Railroad Museum will miss departing director
While enjoying my Saturday breakfast and reading The Sun my eyes fell upon the headline, "Respected chief leaves Baltimore rail museum" (Aug. 14). I re-read the heading -- hoping it wasn't so -- but it seems to be.
As a patron of the B&O; Railroad Museum and a volunteer there for more than four years, I can attest to the great respect in which executive director John R. Ott is held, both in the museum and beyond.
We have been so fortunate to have John Ott as our "chief engineer." He will be missed.
Grace Taylor Schutt
Hanover
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