Editor:

As regards "Mending Broken Hearts" (Feb. 12) -- don't get me started! 

While I am glad St. Joseph Hospital is looking into improving patient care, these statistics are a great example of why we need not-for-profit health care. Leave it to the nurses to tell the truth about staffing overloads, medication error and patients being discharged without aftercare instructions. It is truly "sickening" that hospitals are run for profit, that people don't seek serious health care in time because they don't have insurance. Let's put an end to this madness now and push our new administration hard for single payer health care and join the rest of the "civilized" industrial countries. 

While this article is not about prevention, for those of you who want to prevent heart disease there is extensive evidence that this condition can be prevented by adopting a diet mostly composed of plant-based, whole foods (see the book The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II). 

Let's make a "hearty" effort to change our health care system.

— Lynn Kerman, Eureka

Ed. note: Lest there be any confusion, it should be noted that St. Joseph Hospital is run by a nonprofit, charitable organization -- the Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.