Mea Culpa, We Fuck-Uppa

There were two HUUUUGE mistakes in the virtual droolings below. First, in KEN CALVERT'S MOD SQUAD, we reported that OC Blog has always been behind state Senator John Campbell (R-Richy Richland) from the beginning of his quest for the 48th Congressional District seat. A close follower of Clockwork and OC Blog informed us that OC Blog first supported Assemblyman Dick Ackerman (R-Notso Welloffville), going so far as to brand Campbell as something of a Calvertesque Commie up until Ackerman dropped out, at which point OC Blog courageously jumped on the Campbell Ford bandwagon, which we understands gets even less mph than our '74 Caddy Eldo.

Our apologies to OC Blog for mischaracterizing their original support.

But that's nothing compared to our erroneous reporting four items below that one, headline: LIVER SPOTS. There, we were jumping off an Ayn Rand Institute fellow's take that donated livers should go to whoever can pay for them first rather than the current system that uses waiting lists based on the medical needs of the patient, even if he/she can't pay for it.

Clockwork tied this little exercise in Ebenezer Scroogery, as the Randian did, on the shutdown of the UCI Medical Center donated liver program. Unfortunately, we blamed that shutdown on the wrong set of circumstances.

It was the program at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, not UCI, that closed weeks after its doctors transplanted a donated liver into a Saudi national who ranked 52nd on the regional waiting list, bypassing dozens of people whose conditions were considered more dire, and that hospital staff members subsequently falsified documents to cover up the action. The Los Angeles Times reported that a St. Vincent patient who was at the top of the list for a liver -- but did not receive one -- subsequently died.

UCI just closed its program after the federal agency that oversees Medicare pulled its funding, citing the quality of patient care, the amount of surgeries done and the survival rate of patients. UCI officials responded by closing the program so it could concentrate on investigating its problems and moving patients on its waiting list to other facilities.

And about those transfers: people on waiting lists for organ transplants have a regional score based on how dire their need is. When they are transferred to another program, that score goes with them. They do not automatically go to the bottom of the new program's list.

Again, Clockwork apologizes for confusing one program's possible criminality with another's incompetence.