Dear editor:

With all the recent writings in the paper concerning CRMC, I wanted to set the story straight about an article that appeared on Feb. 15, 2007.

The article, written by Lori Glenn, reported that the hospital won a negligence suit by a technicality. It involved a surgical sponge found in a patient.

The patient’s attorney accused CRMC’s nursing staff of the error, but because the attorney failed to file the court papers in a timely fashion, the case was dismissed.

In Ms. Glenn’s reporting of the events, the only medical person named n the article was the patient’s surgeon, Ronald Trescot, MD.

For the record, I was never named in the suit, nor was I ever considered by the patient (or her attorney) to be negligent in any way.

Moreover, I was not even aware of the suit against the hospital until I read about it in the Moultrie Observer.

The way in which Ms Glenn composed her article suggested the contrary. If she were going to name only me in her article, it would have been prudent on her part to call me prior to its printing for a comment.

Finally, in defense of CRMC and its fine nursing staff, the brand of surgical sponge found in this unfortunate patient was not one that CRMC used with patients at the time the procedure was performed.

It is likely that the case would have been won by the hospital with or without the technicality.

I am sure the Moultrie Observer does its best under tight deadlines to report with accuracy, but the way this article was written has upset my patients.

I guess I should be glad that there is such a thing as an editorial page so we can set the record straight.