Wrong to play with girl’s health

I am quite disturbed that The Herald presents having a seriously ill child continue to play softball in a tournament as somehow a sign of heroic “determination,” but that sidelining top players to lose a game is deplorable. In your original Aug. 12 article, a 12 year old girl is described by her father, the coach, as “so ill she was literally almost crawling to the mound”; yet he did not take her out, because she was determined to play. Who is supposed to be making these judgements? A sick child or an adult who witnesses how ill she is? Would he have let another parent’s child risk their health, to be transported to the hospital emergency room immediately after the game? Is his daughter a commodity belonging to him that he can use as he sees fit? Would it have been a bigger win if the kidney infection left his daughter on dialysis? Then she could really make the front page for her fortitude.

I do not want not disparage the hard work this team of girls has done for years to have success, but the win-at-all costs attitudes expressed by the player, the coach, and The Herald writer, are dangerous, and sadden me.

Katherine Runyon, M.D.

Everett