Letters ;
The grandson scam
Thanks for “My Grandson,
the Crook” [Scam Alert,
March]. I got such a call
from a phone trickster pretending to be my grandson.
Let me tell you, these
scam artists are good. This
one had done his research.
He knew names of other
grandchildren, even knew that one had once been arrested for an “open container” violation. He pitched his
call from the “holding cell” of the “Ottawa, Canada, Police Department,” with a noisy background that made
everything difficult to understand.
I did not send any money and insisted that he call the
kid’s father—and it was only after a minute or two that I
realized he was scamming me.
MARJORIE MORGAN, Longmeadow, Mass.
ALEX NABAUM
Lawsuit payouts
There is much to pity about the
case of Jim Klotz, the retiree
who lost a leg, a kidney and
much of his hearing because of a
staph infection after pacemaker
surgery [The Law]. However,
his story should be a warning
to readers who think that a big
payout should be the due of
everyone who gets an infection.
Mr. Klotz was dying of a
heart attack. He had a pace-
maker implanted that helped
save him. Some weeks later
while on vacation, he was
found to have an infection.
Infections are a risk of sur-
gery, especially in the case of
a foreign body, like pacemak-
ers. Death is a complication of
heart attacks. In another nar-
rative, he would not have been
on vacation, but dead.
I don’t think the message
should be that a bad outcome
deserves a huge payout. As a
society we can’t afford to pay
members of our society unlim-
ited awards whether they are
productive wage-earners or
active retirees. The status quo,
as portrayed in Mr. Klotz’s
story, cannot persist. We do
not have the resources.
ERIC SARGENT, M.D.
Birmingham, Mich.
Material values?
What a great commentary by
Jim Wallis [“Good News About
a Bad Economy,” Opinion].
Someone recently commented
that our current economic
situation was created by “greed
meeting gullibility.” I agree.
When you borrow and spend
to accumulate material objects
of no spiritual meaning in
search of happiness, you will
always crash and burn.
