Dear Editor, it was with a great deal of interest that I read your article on 3/3/23 about Adventist Health and Paradise Hospital.
I was working as an emergency physician in Paradise on the morning of the fire. The staff heroically worked to evacuate the patients. Some staff were trapped in the parking lot and at a nearby pharmacy. The firefighters worked very hard to save the staff. I can not say enough good things about the firefighters and the hospital staff.
As an Adventist I am disappointed in Adventist Health's attorneys aggressive manner, but I am not surprised. When my father died the church's attorneys were very aggressive in the way they dealt with my sister, cpa, and attorney, in attempting to get their share of money from my father's trust.
As an Adventist I was embarrassed the way they treated my sister and the professionals working with her. They said they had never seen a church act in such a manner. I was planning to retire in three months, so it was just an inconvenience for me, but almost all of my co-workers lost everything – jobs, homes, and personal items. Your point of Adventist Health taking most of the settlement money, when the "little guy" lost out, and promising to reopen, and then not doing it, is very sad and wrong.
Dr. Reagan Bellinghausen, M.D.
Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians