My mother received care from Dr. Curka at the St. Luke's Emergency Services Center at Holcombe, and had the unfortunate experience of having Dr. Curka as the first person to convey that she has Stage 4 metastatic cancer. Dr. Curka was entirely tactless and lacked any sort of compassion in the way that he communicated her condition. Both my mother and her sister who were accompanying her were shocked by his "matter-of-fact", blasé attitude. It's hard, I'm sure, to be a doctor an emergency room, and it would certainly be wearing on anyone, not to mention Dr. Curka. However, I think it's a sad day when someone who's entrusted with care for other people doesn't comport himself with communication standards that most professions would be ashamed of, especially in such life-altering, important situations. Though I'm not a doctor myself, I do believe that it is a people-oriented profession.

Submitted Dec. 31, 2013