LET’R RIP

We’re not trying to wring sympathy from you, but put yourself in our place. It’s another Monday morning. The coffee is perking and the word processors have just begun to hum, or zhhmmmm, or whatever that sound is, when it’s time to open letters from readers. We love to open these letters. We even argue about who gets to hold the bottom of the envelope and who gets to wield the letter opener and who gets to pull the letter out.

So what would you do with a letter that began, “What about the Addison T-shirt? What about the middle-aged human blintzes-in SMU sweatshirts? What about the bleached blonde stewardess named Suzette and her crystal earrings? What about me, hanging out in the West End, hollering ’Hook Em Horns’ like a depraved zilchoid from a drunken North Uranus?”

What about them, indeed? Small wonder that we in the Let’r Rip department sometimes grow testy, perhaps forget the healing balm of kindness and courtesy on this long, long road from which there is no return.

We read on, faces pressed close together so that everyone could see, and soon our puzzlement was replaced by more puzzlement. Turns out the letter was from a previous letter writer whose thoughts on ecstasy-head-turned-celebrity Rodney Kitchens, along with sundry musings on the local media, were carried in the December issue. The writer accuses us of slashing and censoring his letter, “most notably all references to the West End.” He goes on in this dark vein: “Everything you slashed involved something D Magazine supposedly supports. What’s wrong? Afraid to do it openly?” And he lands a preemptive strike smack-dab on our silo of excuses: “Don’t tell me you slashed pertinent details simply to save space.”

The writer, whose name is omitted here in order to save space, no doubt refers to D’s longstanding devotion to the West End cause, as seen in our November 1977 cover story “Why Don’t We Have a West End?” and that probing special issue from December 1980, The Man Who Killed the West End,” which laid bare the corrupt powermongering that had crushed previous attempts to bring a West End to Dallas. [He] goes on to suggest that we should have cut the “cute-as-my-toe-jam preview”that precedes the letters instead of his pertinent details. He also argues that “…70 percent of Dallas County… drug addict. . . crying out loud” and blames “.. .superficial. . Journalistic. . .over-inflated-ness.. .”for a number of ills. And he closes: “One would think I should have died of an overdose of D-ullsvilleyears ago. . .”

Yes, one would think. See you in the West End.



Wadley: The Questions Continue



I have worked at the Wadley Blood Center for many years. I can attest to the accuracies of the article “Blood Money” [December]. Wadley used to be a place I could be proud of as an employee. The past two to three years have brought changes I am ashamed of. The front-line people work hard to portray a positive image, but behind the scenes and in upper management, the atrocities are unreal. The technical areas are poorly run ; [management] is more concerned with increasing revenue with little thought to public safety. I have witnessed [a manager] asking technical personnel to use outdated reagants in the testing for communicable diseases. He believes in cutting corners. He issues no written policies but conveys his procedures by word of mouth so that he can deny it when it backfires.

[Another high-level director] is more concerned with making it appear that we are following FDA guidelines as opposed to actually adhering to them. I have seen her change procedures when FDA is to inspect and revert to guidelines that are against FDA policy after the inspection is over. I sincerely hope the board recognizes that changes need to be made.

Upper management is recruiting employees to write to D to dispute the allegations. They are dictating the words and the employee signs.

Thank you for bringing this to light. I was on the verge of resigning before the article came out, despite the fact that I have personal responsibilities and a family to raise. Where are the ethics?

A WADLEY EMPLOYEE

DALLAS

“Blood Money” deserves some comment from those of us with a long history with the Wadley Blood Bank. Unfortunately, Jeff Posey and Glenna Whitley completely ignore the numerous positive contributions that Dr. J.M. Hill has made to medicine. Furthermore, the inference that avarice has been a driving force with the Hill family is shameful.

I believe your article and opinions to be essentially correct from the standpoint that a more open style of management and a different form of accountability has long been needed at Wadley. In the mid-Seventies, I was one of the people who, for a sustained period of time, strongly attempted to push changes onto Wadley Blood Bank, but met with little or no success. However, your article does me, and others like me, a grave injustice when you imply that I am too ignorant to recognize gross incompetence in the blood bank that furnishes blood to the hospital laboratory where I was the medical director. Hospitals in Dallas for whom Wadley furnishes blood have their blood banks directed by trained professionals who know a lot about blood banking.

Despite the intemperance in your article, I believe some long-term good may very well result and, if so, no small amount of credit should go to you and your staff.

V. Q. TELFORD, M.D.

RICHARDSON

Wadley has had a family blood plan at least as long as we have lived in Dallas (since 1975). If a person donates one pint of blood and pays the meager handling fee of $1, that person, and her entire family, will have all her blood supply needs met for the year at no cost! This certainly sounds like the center is trying to make a killing to me.

ANN B. FLEMING

RICHARDSON



As a medical technologist, I was less surprised by your revelations about the Blood Center at Wadley than I was shocked and dismayed by your lack of balanced reporting.

If this article had been well researched and written, I doubt I would have so many questions after reading it. If Wadley charges $100 per unit of blood, what are other comparable facilities charging? The number of court cases against Wadley does not strike me as inordinate for a facility of this size-how many cases are pending against other facilities? Did you check with other labs to find out standard practices of implementing new tests; i.e., the new AIDS tests in 1985?

By not presenting an overview of changes in blood processing in the late Seventies and Eighties, your article casts the Wadley Blood Bank in the role of a negligent corporate monster. Many of the problems, seen so clearly in hindsight, were problems nationwide at that particular time.

LEE FRIES, M.T. (ASCP)

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS



While the facts about Wadley as stated are probably true, you only published those that supported the premise of the article. You used comments from former employees, most of whom had an ax to grind. You didn’t quote a single present employee. You made a great deal of the quotes from a Leigh Ann Morris-Keener. Did you know this lady only worked at Wadley for about a week and that her testimony was thrown out of court?

SAM BECK

DALLAS



The authors reply: In response to V.Q. Telford’s statement about avarice, we simply reported the opinions of numerous members of the medical community and former Wadley managers. Unfortunately, we were never given the opportunity to interview any present employees or the Hills, despite our repeated requests.

Fries, the medical technician, asks how much comparable facilities charge for blood. Most donated units of blood are broken into three components: red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. For all three of these, Wadley charges $108; Carter Blood Bank in Fort Worth, $97; the Central Texas Red Cross in Waco, $77; Parkland Hospital, which does not distribute its blood outside of the hospital except in very rare instances, charges a higher $120. We stand by our statement that Wadley continues to charge one of the highest prices in the country. It is true, as Fries suggests, that AIDS was a threat to blood banks nationwide. Some experts suggest that the entire nonprofit blood industry was at fault for failing to