Dear Ann Landers: You are doing a great service by airing the concerns of “Anonymous Resident” and the response from an equally anonymous New York physician concerning sleep deprivation and the medical profession. It is bad for patients, and it is bad for doctors.
However, I totally disagreed with the New York doctor when he said, “Unquestionably, brutal hours and sleep deprivation teach self-reliance and build self-confidence (for the physician).”
Who said so? What good is a doctor who has done less than his or her best because of exhaustion? Wrong medication or dosages have been prescribed, and wrong limbs have been amputated. How does this build self-confidence?
My husband was a doctor, and my son is one now. I saw them both struggle to keep the self-confidence they originally had as they went through the system. This practice may be good for the hospital’s bottom line because then fewer doctors have to be hired, but please do not believe this benefits the doctors because it does not. Such exploitation takes its toll. Recent studies show that the inherent stress actually shortens doctors’ lives.
Please join in an all-out campaign to stop handing down the curse of too much work and too little sleep from one generation of doctors to the next. This is a profession in crisis.
A Witness in N.J.
Dear Witness: You’ve made a very strong case. I would like to hear from the doctors out there. Does this woman’s letter make sense to you?
Dear Ann Landers: A year ago, my language arts classes began writing to Any Service Person, Operation Joint Endeavor, at the address I found in your column. One of the men who responded was Bill Reines, a civilian working with the military in Bosnia. Bill sent letters, postcards, maps and colorful travel guides. The most fantastic thing about this whole experience is that when Bill’s deployment was up in April, he came to meet my classes before returning home to California.
Bill has now begun writing to my classes for the 1997-98 school year while he is deployed in Egypt. I want to thank Bill Reines and you, Ann Landers, for giving my students such a great learning experience.
Lounsberry Hollow Middle School, Vernon, N.J.
Dear Teacher: The praise should go to Bill Reines. He deserves all of it. He must be quite a guy to have gone out of his way to meet with your students. Here’s an extra thanks to you, Bill, from Ann Landers. And now for one more letter on the same subject:
Dear Ann: I am a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. While stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, the mail meant everything to me.
When you printed the “Any Service Member” address in your column, the wonderful people who wrote saved many servicemen the despair that only a G.I. knows. Getting mail became a ray of sunshine. You and your readers lifted our spirits and helped unite us all around mail call. I’m sure you never realized the impact of your actions.
I am now in Tuzla, Bosnia, and am seeing the lack of mail close in like a morning fog. Ann, would you once again muster your troops?
USAF in Bosnia
Dear Soldier: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to print the addresses for our service people in Bosnia. Please, dear readers, don’t forget the thousands of U.S. servicemen and women serving in our armed forces:
For Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps land forces, write to: Any Service Member, Operation Joint Guard, APO AE 09307-0001.
For Navy and Marine Corps personnel aboard ships, write to: Any Service Member, Operation Joint Guard, FPO AA 09398-0001.
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Drugs are easy to get, easy to use and even easier to get hooked on. If you have questions about drugs, you need Ann Landers’ booklet, “The Lowdown on Dope.” Send a self-addressed, long, business-size envelope and a check or money order for $3.75 to: Lowdown, c/o Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, Ill. 60611-0562.
