National Offices | WholeFoodsMarket.com

National Offices | WholeFoodsMarket.com: "Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703-4644"


Mr. Mackey
CEO
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703-4644

Dear Mr. Mackey,

I just read your op-ed piece in the WSJ about health care. I am extremely offended by several sections of your article.


"many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted" - my phrenic nerve became paralyzed without cause, or as the doctors call it "idiopathic". This led to my diaphragm muscle having no movement, becoming de and moving up my body cavity, pressing my heart out of alignment. The surgeon who tried to fix the heart problem, botched the surgery leaving me with additional nerve damage and severe side effects. The AMA determined him to be guilty of negligence, but not gross, criminal negligence. They told me that I would win a civil lawsuit, but that criminal charges were not required. Did I sue? No. He screwed up, and all I did was pay my bill.

And now you have the nerve to tell me that my health problems are self-inflicted. Wow. Because of this doctor's negligence, I cannot walk up a flight of stairs without vomiting. But clearly, I must be to blame.

Your arrogance is disgusting and repulsive.

Do you know why you get to be so arrogant? Because of chance. You have the good luck to have started the right kind of business at the right time. You have the good luck to have your health.

Right now, riding the peak of your success and feeling your great health, you think that you have somehow mastered the world, and that you deserve all of this, that you have created your good health. But the truth is that the control anyone feels they have in life is an illusion. And in one moment you can learn this simple truth.

The control you feel you have over your life and your health is an illusion. I know you don't believe me now. And to be honest I wouldn't wish on anyone, even someone as callous and arrogant as yourself, to have to learn this lesson in their own life.

But one moment and it is all gone. A simple cold virus can move to your heart muscle and in weeks you can be dead. A cut so small as to be not visible to the human eye can let an invisible bacteria into your body and cause a septic reaction powerful enough to kill within days.