NEW ORLEANS - A doctor and two nurses who worked through the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina were arrested overnight, accused of giving four patients stranded at their hospital lethal doses of morphine and a sedative, authorities said Tuesday.“We’re not calling this euthanasia. We’re not calling this mercy killings. This is second-degree murder,” said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles C. Foti.
The arrest warrants say Dr. Anna Pou and the two nurses intentionally killed four patients at Memorial Medical Center “by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulphate (morphine) and midazolam (Versed).”
In an accompanying affidavit, an agent for the Louisiana Justice Department wrote that Pou told a nurse executive three days after the hurricane hit that “lethal doses” would be administered to those patients who could not be evacuated.
Pou said the patients remaining at the hospital would likely not survive and that a “decision had been made to administer lethal doses” to them, the affidavit says.
“’Lethal doses of what?”’ the nurse executive asked, according to the affidvit says. It says Pou answered: “morphine and ativan.”
34 deaths at hospital
Two months after the hurricane, the attorney general subpoenaed more than 70 people in an investigation into rumors that medical personnel at Memorial Medical Center had euthanized patients who were in pain after the hurricane as they waited in miserable conditions for rescue.
Pou’s lawyer, Rick Simmons, said his client is innocent, and her mother said she was distressed by her daughter’s arrest.
“Medicine was the most important thing in her life and I know she never ever did anything deliberately to hurt anyone,” Jeanette Pou said in a telephone interview.
Memorial Medical Center had been cut off by flooding after the Aug. 29 hurricane swamped New Orleans. Power was out in the 317-bed hospital and the temperatures inside rose over 100 degrees as the staff tried to tend to patients who waited four days to be evacuated.
At least 34 patients died there during that period, 10 of them patients of the hospital’s owner Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and 24 patients in a facility run by LifeCare Holdings Inc., a separate company.
Deaths listed as ‘Katrina-related’
After the bodies were recovered, Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said they were so decomposed the deaths could only be listed as “Katrina-related.”
He later said samples had been taken from dozens of patients who died at various hospitals and nursing homes to test for potentially lethal doses of drugs such as morphine.
In a December interview, Dr. Pou had told Baton Rouge television station WBRZ: “There were some patients there who were critically ill who, regardless of the storm, had the orders of do not resuscitate. In other words, if they died, to allow them to die naturally, and to not use heroic methods to resuscitate them.”
“We all did everything in our power to give the best treatment that we could to the patients in the hospital to make them comfortable,” Pou said then.
Tammie Holley, an attorney representing about a dozen families whose relatives died at Memorial, says the presence of the sedative in addition to morphine is important in determining whether hospital staff intended to kill a patient. Midazolam is used to induce unconsciousness before surgery, according to a medical Web site.
“If it was only morphine, there would be no way to know if they were administering it to control their pain,” Holley said.
'Euthanasia ... never permissible'
Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., said the allegations against the doctor and nurses, if proven true, were disturbing.
“Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances,” Anderson said.
In addition to Pou, nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were arrested and later released on personal recognizance bonds, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Landry and Budo had attorneys who could comment.
Simmons said Pou was arrested and handcuffed at her house late Monday night.
“I told them that she is not a flight risk. I told them that she would surrender herself. Instead, they chose to arrest her in her scrubs so that they could present her scalp to the media,” he said.
Angela McManus said Tuesday that her 70-year-old mother was among the patients who died at Memorial. Her mother had been recovering from a blood infection but seemed fine and was still able to speak when police demanded relatives of the ill evacuate. She died later that day, McManus said.
“At least now I’ll be able to get some answers,” McManus said. “For months, I haven’t known what happened to my mom. I need some answers just to be able to function.”
Tenet said Tuesday it is selling the now-closed Memorial Medical Center and two other area hospitals to Ochsner Health System, a sale expected to be completed by Aug. 31.
sanctitY OF HUMAN Life (Score:2, Insightful)
iS NOT ONLY ABSURd
but audacious, yes the power of their audacity & HUBRIS reminds me of Mengele, who 'proudly' delivered Jewish babies @ Auschwitz
only to...
(User #15856 Info)
The procession continues... (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh stop it... you're making me blush!
RE: the Katrina sitch...
Doctors and nurses accused of giving four patients stranded in hospital lethal doses of morphine and a sedative is just as sickening as the police who fled instead of protecting. It's as shocking as the crack monsters who stole, raped and intimidated for their awful addiction. It's as wrong as the Bush administration's lack of swift response and subsequent photos splashed of blacks in knee high water carrying their belongings on their heads like something straight out of a National Geographic piece on some war-torn banana republic. It's as stomach turning as the fact that money spent to improve the dykes went to the Iraq war effort. Indeed, it's pathetic, but it's where things are at. Unbelievable.
(User #11477 Info)
let's change the topic (Score:0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGTpxQM0JI&search
Note how young Morrissey could give lessons to old Morrissey about charm, and the quite violent end, involving Mike, when Morrissey had just rejected violence in favour of: charm charm charm...
Oh so THAT was what "this charming man" was about? lol.
"Come sit on my knees Henry, I'll explain to you what a charming man is."
British TV in the 80's eh ; wonder what happened to all those pedophile producers...
A not very funny thing happened: the gig itself. (Score:1, Interesting)
The chubby parrot probably just repeated something his master had asked him to say... I doubt Martin Boorer, with a wife and kids,has time for internet journals. I wonder if the poor fella has realized he doesn't have to share his brain with M, but can actually have one of his own, lol. Next time you open your mouth to tell a joke Boz, make sure you finish it. You may not have perceived but this joke stopped being funny a decade ago to me.
Anyway. Gemini, what do you expect.
Well in Paris Mr Boorer kept mercifully quiet, a good thing since I wanted to kill his master for the first 20 minutes and could have easily extended the favour to him.
I thought I had to leave the Raconteurs set early to make sure I'd see something; I was hypnothized by Jack White on the screen,the sexy bastard, so I somehow regretted that decision afterwards. And I needn't have worried, there was ample space on the right of the stage with the medical crew and the security blokes (who looked frightfully bored by the end of the gig);
M came on stage and well...we had foreseen that... Not only did he survive, to answer your question, but he seemed totally unmoved. I could have tried to get Terminator's attention, it would have been the same feeling really. "Hello, I'm here! Kill meeeeee!" lol. I'm fairly certain he spotted me, he just chose to ignore me...
Mind you between some random foreign individual he hasn't seen for years and the usual fervent "family", it was not hard to choose who to concentrate on and look at. I probably would have done the same, lol. Risk-free is how we like our lives.
I was surprised not to feel any animosity towards the musicians, except Booboo vaguely, for afore mentionned reason. I even found Jesse cute in a compliant way. Looks docile enough (that's how he likes them, lol, I'm telling you). My fave was Mikey. Whom I only saw briefly. Hello Mikey. For obvious love of round black ears.
But it struck me, epecially after seeing the brilliant TV on the radio, how could anyone play behind Morrissey. They're all pretty personality-free on stage. It's not a group, although M would very much like us to think so. At least not a group as I define a group. Anyway. Who cares for my opinion? (You I know, lol)
Musically, I didn't mind the gig, just didn't feel any emotion. But I expected him to give a little something, and he gave nothing. (Oh dear I have just quoted "my love life",lol.). Is he always on automatic pilot? lol.
Oh sure, he told plenty of anecdotes... He told us about a place called Buffalo and irony and the hits he didn't have in France and we got the same Sacha Distel tedious old joke. He tried half heartedly to tease ( Paris city of lovers blah blah) but it's obvious he didn't give a fuck. No hidden message, lol.
Just meaningless.
I pity the crowd who thinks he means what he sings. Oh God. Poor lambs.
An old and seasoned pro, that's what he is. But for emotion, (given and taken)zero. I hope for his sake he has them emotions in private. No, honestly, not bitterly. I really begin to wonder.
Only vaguely funny thing was that as I tried to get his attention at first, I scared various members of the audience by gesturing and nodding like a nutter. They must have all thought I was a hysterical fan. lol. How could they know. I hope it was dark enough and that not many people thought that, lol. At an Outgames party a stranger had given me a funny flashing light, and I took that as a sign, so I used it a couple of times, but I quickly stopped, given the keen atmosphere, lol.
Fans-wise, on my side nothing but nice normal people. lol. A couple of vaguely excited girlies, nothing else to report.
I didn't see Julia (at last, a real regret!)She was there hours ahead probably, and already surrounded by other anxious people when I got there. lol. I didn't mind him referring to her. After the
Christian Dior (Score:0)
nobody knows your name now
all they can say is john gallia
no
nobody speaks your language anymore
your initials on international hand luggage,
Christian Dior, what are they for?
No one young knows your face
tru(e)ly a good perfume leaves no trace
And yet yours I always thought were so...
Well, I can't afford beauty products anyhow
CD
When you look at me you know
You could never meet me at a fashion show
Christian Dior
From far above
All you see is somebody
alive, but poor
who deserves all you've got, if not more,
but who refuses to shop in designers' stores
or clap for encores
Christian
Your mother must have believed in you
wished for you to have fame and fortune
more than mine did for me
and that too, you can see
Cri- Cri
That royal scent
that makes them all bow
I don't know
where you got it from
and how it was paid for
But when you look at me you know
I could never wear anything like your clothes
I could never smell like a rose
And I could never give you your dose
of something strong and heady like
Success
And a pass for unlimited backstage access
And that's why you look away.
Christian Dior
the poet said
your name was made of Gold, and God
But what did he know
the silly fool
he fell for Jean Marais.
Christian Dior
Design, if you're thin,
A way out of your brand new lonely CD coffin.