Letters

Today's skaters deserve a place to exercise, too

Thank you for featuring the plight of the skateboard youth. Recently I confronted six young students from Leigh High School who had just "discovered" one of the "most perfect" quadrangles in our residential complex. (None of them lived here.) Of course, it was the noise which caught my attention and caused me to go out my garage door to investigate.

Actually, it was in a neighboring quadrangle where, at that moment, they were performing a well-executed round-and-round formation together. I hated to interrupt their gymnastics. But I felt obligated to point out the visible words stencil-painted on each driveway entrance: "Private property ... no skateboarding." "Oh?... Oh!" They were very polite, but expressed their dismay.

"There's no place where we can go and skateboard," they said. Since then, their plight has been on my mind. They need a large enough paved area where they can skateboard in groups like that, together, as well as do solo skateboard gymnastics.

Back in my own girlhood days, I enjoyed (steel) roller skating on the neighborhood sidewalks with my friends.

In this generation of couch potato screen watchers, surely we should encourage these young people who want to get plenty of skillful muscle exercise.

Margaret Ross
Los Gatos

Letter misstated treatment of broken arms

As a board certified orthopedic surgeon practicing in this area since 1964, I would like to respond to recent letters from Richard B. Fox, M.D., and from Roseanna Berkowitz.

First I would like to establish the fact that all board certified orthopedic surgeons have also been trained in children's orthopedics and specifically in treatments of broken arms and fractures.

For nearly 40 years I have treated hundreds of fractures in children, some simple, some difficult. I cannot recall of a single case where I treated a child's fracture without analgesics. Ms. Berkowitz makes a comment that "almost all pediatric hospitals would use analgesics to set an 8-year-old's broken arm while less than 60 percent of adult ERs would use analgesic in the same circumstances.

I would certainly like to see the article she is quoting because all of my training has stressed reducing fractures without pain. This would apply to adults and to children. In children I performed many axillary nerve blocks which numbs the entire arm and allows one to reduce or fix the fracture in a child without pain.

I would also argue somewhat with Dr. Fox who suggests that a broken arm in a child cannot be treated by a board certified orthopedic surgeon but rather must be treated by a "highly qualified pediatric surgical specialist."

I agree that there are certain conditions, usually not the typical fracture, that can be best treated by surgeons who specialize in pediatric orthopedics. However, the vast majority of fractures seen in an emergency room can be treated by any qualified orthopedic surgeon.

I commend Dr. Fox and others for attempting to establish a pediatric hospital in Los Gatos, and I certainly agree with the site they have chosen. However, they should be aware that many years ago Dr. Larry Hayes, pediatric surgeon and former Chief of Staff at Good Samaritan Hospital, attempted to establish a pediatric hospital but was unsuccessful. In today's managed care environment, hospital survival is very difficult. Some will remember the Recovery Inn of Los Gatos that failed in the recent past. Building and running a hospital is a very expensive proposition and reimbursement currently by insurance carriers is less than fair in most cases. This is consistent with physician reimbursements that now, in many cases, approach the same levels of reimbursement in 1970. Approximately 70 percent of every dollar collected by a hospital goes to labor.

Therefore, while I commend Dr. Fox for his efforts, I feel that any progress in the direction of a pediatric hospital should be made carefully and with competent advice from hospital administrative people who have already been through the pitfalls of running any hospital.

Please be assured however, that in my experience in this community since 1964, I have never seen an orthopedic surgeon treat any significant fracture in any 8-year-old without adequate analgesia or anesthesia.

Charles A. Borgia, M.D.
Good Samaritan Hospital

Monte Sereno council decided without facts

Recently, the Monte Sereno City Council voted in favor of the abandonment of a piece of land considered as a possible access road for a proposed development of a 10-acre canyon at 15191 Karl Ave. The council voted unanimously that Via Palomino was "clearly the worst access to the property," and I quote "this access would have the most impact on the environment."

How did the council come up with that decision? The council decided without reviewing an engineering report, a geological report, an EPA report, without a traffic report or neighborhood impact study.

We hope the council will appreciate the sacrifices we made and the risks we took for the sake of being a good neighbor.

Maybe an access through Via Palomino is the worst access but that could not be determined at the time of the meeting.

We, the Karl Avenue residents did not encourage the developer or the council to solely consider Via Palomino as the only access to the property. We did not think it was fair that any one neighborhood should carry the brunt of the whole development.

Mayor Suzanane Jackson seemed genuinely adamant to preserve the rural character of Monte Sereno. We think this would best be accomplished by having the driveway stay a driveway, lined with trees. Will she be consistent with her decision when it comes to voting on the access on Karl Avenue?

The council is worried about erosion. I would presume they will not look favorably upon a 20 percent slope. The council wants to minimize impact on the environment. Will its decision be consistent when we put our children on the endangered list?

Mayor Jackson praised the Karl Avenue neighborhood for refusing to be pitted against the Via Palomino neighborhood. It was a conscious decision on our part. We met with them, discussed the situation, considered our options and decided that we would not oppose the abandonment but request the council to postpone its decision until it had all the facts.

We believed it was a reasonable request, which would not preclude the council from voting on abandonment at a later stage of debate. Obviously we do not believe that the council acted in the best interest of the community as a whole by taking such a rushed and uninformed decision.

We want to see the same concern for trees, impact on neighborhood, privacy, rural character, traffic and children's safety come up and be regarded as important as council members regarded the trees lining the open space on Via Palomino. If the council does not treat the Karl Avenue neighborhood as it has the Via Palomino neighborhood, we will regret having taken the position of fairness.

Michele Jehenson-Chow
Monte Sereno

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