Right Or Wrong?

[4cruisin]

I'm not sure right or wrong is the correct question. I just read this and wondered what other disers thought about this story.



3 Arrested in New Orleans Hospital Deaths

Updated 1:05 PM ET July 18, 2006



By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - 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.

The three were arrested on charges of being "principals to second-degree murder."

"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 that 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)."

Foti had subpoenaed more than 70 people last fall 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.



"She is innocent. This whole thing is unfair," said Pou's lawyer, Rick Simmons.

Her mother, Jeanette Pou, 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," she 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.

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.

Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., said the allegations, 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.

___

Associated Press Writers Alan Sayre Mary Foster in New Orleans and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge contributed to this report.

 

[lecach]

Well I will probably be told that my opinion is wrong, but if it happened the way I heard then I think they did the right thing. The way I understand it, is that they couldn't give them the treatment they needed to be comfortable due to lack of supplies and/or electricity, and they were destined to have died a painful death, so they were given meds to make their death more comfortable. If that's the truth then I think they did the humane thing.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Not sure either. Hurricane Katrina presented everyone with a unique situation that no one seemed to know how to deal with. The thought of someone I love, who had a GOOD chance of recovery, being euthanized is scary. However, the thought of someone I loved who was suffering, when getting help and care seemed hopelessly far off, might make me think I'd want that person to get the relief they needed, and sometimes that relief might be a large dose of something that could end their life.

I have to agree with the comments about HOW they arrested the Dr. I know that a man in our town was arrested, and some of the officers wanted to do it publicly, at the soccer field, to embarrass him even more. They decided to do it more privately, at his home or place of business...not sure. I'm sure the prosecutors were looking for more drama in how the doctor was arrested.

 

[paigevz]

Hmmm........if they just needed to be made more comfortable, why were they given lethal doses?

IF the allegations are true, then I do think they were wrong to kill the patients..............if indeed, that was their intention.

 

[lowie]

my first thought was that these patients were in horrendous conditions, and the wait was days on end for relief... but then my brain clicked in and i'm thinking that if the doctors and nurses truly think they were doing the right thing why did they hide it?

 

[mickeyfan2]

I would never want to end somebodies life.

I wonder how the public/media etc. would have reacted if the Drs. let those same people die but in agony? In this situation the Drs. and Nurses may have done the right thing. Only they and the patients know for sure.


ETA: It is also possible the Drs and Nurses made a dosage mistake. God only knows how many days they went without sleep.

 

[momof2inPA]

Wrong. Brownie should be on trial for second degree murder.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Legally, they knew it was wrong and did it anyway. So you will have to suffer the consequences of that. Unless of course it was a mistake or someone else was responsible for it. Who knows?

Morally, that is for debate. We were not there and it is hard to make a judgement.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Hmmm........if they just needed to be made more comfortable, why were they given lethal doses?

IF the allegations are true, then I do think they were wrong to kill the patients..............if indeed, that was their intention.

I remember my mother telling me that when her father was dying of lung cancer, he was in so much pain, that the order was to give him whatever he needed to make him comfortable. Last time she saw him, he didn't appear to be "on the verge" of dying that quickly, but got a call not long after she left the hospital saying he had passed away. My mother suspects the morphine may have contributed to the timing of his death, but more importantly, she was glad he had been given relief from the pain, if the alternative had been to suffer with no relief.

Pain isn't always easy to fix, as if there's a specific amount that will relieve the patient but not kill him...it's not all black and white. I hardly think that Dr and those nurses "killed" people for the hell of it.