Dear HCN,
I have just finished
lunch with your essay, “Squishy-soft processes – hard results”
(HCN,
8/28/00). I read with particular interest the part about
Nye, Mont., and the palladium mine. We visited Nye in the early
’90s for the sole purpose of seeing the mine (hillbillies do that).
We were having a chuckle about “bet we are the only people from
northwest Arkansas doing this,” when we drove a few miles and met
some folks about 20 miles north of us who were also
hillbillies.
Two years later the doctors found an
inoperable tumor wrapped around my brainstem, and in 1995, when the
Midwest Research Center in Kansas City purchased a “Gamma Knife”
machine, my “eye doctor” heard of it and called me. So, my hubby
and I roared off to Kansas City, and during a tour before the
treatment, the lady explained that the machine’s 500-pound helmet
was made of palladium. After a discussion of where all that stuff
comes from, we went on to bigger and better
things.
Your article stated this metal is used in
auto catalytic converters – I used to sell cars and have been so
educated on the evils of such – but this pricey little metal has
also improved the lives of thousands of us driving around in our
catalytic converters with our brain tumors that are decreasing in
size.
Carole
Hawley
Springdale, Arkansas
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A short story about palladium.
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