LA - Hurricane Katrina, Doctors Euthanized Patients?, 2005

[tybee204]

I dont know what the Daily Mail Publication is. If anyone knows if its a tabloid let me know.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...e_id=361980&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5

Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save.

Her heart-rending account has been corroborated by a hospital orderly and by local government officials. One emergency official, William 'Forest' McQueen, said: "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."

More at link.

 

[BirdieBoo]

Wikipedia on Daily Mail

 

[concernedperson]

My god, I can't even respond to this. Are you trying to kill me.?

 

[Ntegrity]

I heard this on Fox tonight. I'm sure it was a horrible decision for the doctors to make, but I admire their compassion. If I were in that situation, I'd want someone to do that for me.

 

[kgeaux]

The Daily Mail occupies a position midway between the tabloid and broadsheet divide, covering much of the same celebrity ground as the tabloids but positioning itself as a more upmarket "middle class" publication.

above from Wikipedia.

I don't believe it.

 

[Tom'sGirl]

If I were in that situation, I'd want someone to do that for me.

Ditto here!

 

[lilpony]

So sad...

 

[Buzz Mills]

One of the local channels had a story about a Bay Area doctor who was part of a medical unit at the SuperDome. He spoke of the deplorable conditions with the heat, stench, and the unruly crowd. They were using the Ice Rink at the SuperDome as their medical work area. He said it became extremely dangerous to work there because of all of the violence, and all of the doctors. and nurses, were forced to slip away, a few at a time, in the middle of the night, leaving the patients as they were; i.e. hooked up to IV's etc. He said they didn't have a choice. From what he said, everything was completely out of control. He also spoke of patients that they decided were beyond saving, and they just moved those patients to an out of the way area to allow them to die.

 

[Enola]

Hi, I read this in the The Mail yesterday - it's a newspaper that we take every day and which I would vouch for as a good middle-ground newspaper rather than a tabloid/scandal rag. Tabloid has two meanings over here - in the strict sense The Daily Mail is a tabloid because it is 'tabloid size' but tabloid seems to have become a by-word for 'not to be trusted'.

The article was presented as front page, with photographs of the doctor in question. It was heart-wrentching . I do believe that it was true and my heart goes out to the patients and doctors involved.

 

[Nova]

Ditto here!

Ditto here as well.

 

[tennessee]

Ditto here as well.

Ditto.

I would much rather them allow me to die pain free. We can't save everyone. It is just a fact of life. I commend the doctors for their compassion and for recognizing the limits they had.

 

[Amraann]

We had this chat the other night in the chatroom,


One of the members asked if you work in a nursing home and your the only one left and there is no way to help them or get them to safety would you stay or go?
I said if it comes down to life and death and there is absolutely nothing I can do to save them and there is no way they can survive, I said I would give them all massive doses of morphine so they don't suffer.
SO I guess I am not to surprised that these DR's sadly were put in the position to have to make that choice.
Its atrocious that they were put in that situation.

 

[tired.old.hag]

“All we could do was provide the barest amount of comfort care. We watched many, many people die. We practiced medical triage at its most basic -- "black-tagging" the sickest people and culling them from the masses so that they could die in a separate area.”


"We did everything from delivering babies to simply providing morphine and a blanket to septic and critical patients, and allowing them to die."



​

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4836926&ft=1&f=1007

Personally, I think the medical people did the best they could in a very bad situation, and showed great compassion.

 

[lynie]

What a very sad situation. Tragic.

God bless those that had to make this decision as it was caring and humane.

Nobody but nobody can afford to cast stones in this situation.

 

[Ntegrity]

I agree. I'd rather go with an OD of morphine than like those poor folks who drowned in the nursing home.

 

[Linda7NJ]

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- More than one medical professional is under scrutiny as a possible person of interest as Louisiana's attorney general investigates whether hospital workers resorted to euthanasia in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina shattered New Orleans, a source familiar with the investigation has told CNN.

CNN first reported in October that staff members at Memorial Medical Center had discussions about euthanizing patients after the hurricane flooded the city on Monday, August 29, cutting off power and stranding hundreds of thousands of residents. Now, for the first time, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has told CNN that allegations of possible euthanasia at Memorial Medical Center are "credible and worth investigating."

more at link:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/21/katrina.hospital/index.html

 

[Details]

I wondered about those - it seemed like a situation where euthanasia would be a mercy - they're rare, but it is needed sometimes. If they did, if it was needed, I hope there's no punishment.

 

[SewingDeb]

I wondered about those - it seemed like a situation where euthanasia would be a mercy - they're rare, but it is needed sometimes. If they did, if it was needed, I hope there's no punishment.

I feel the same way, Details. The conditions were horrible and if they were suffering and probably could not survive being moved, it would be a mercy.

 

[Toby]

As time consuming as it indeed will be, each case will have to be judged separately. If the euthanasia occurred en masse, then definately...charge the guilty participants.
This will be difficult on all involved, much like the Shiavo case.
Will the family members of those involved want prosecution?
Will they seek monetary compensation?
Will the city be open to such liable suits?
Will the family members just shrug it off??
This will get messy....en masse.

 

[reb]

i do think it's necessary- legally- to investigate these cases, just to be sure and follow the law. but i hope they don't put these health care professionals through the ringer. i think they suffered horribly, and had no idea if they would ever be rescued, many people actually thought they might all die there before help would come, and i haven't heard yet about one single one who abandoned their post. they had to make agonizing decisions regarding peoples' lives, after they were ABANDONED BY THEIR OWN CITY!!!! they were running out of water, living in unbearable heat, in buildings with backed-up sewage lines, many gave their food & water to the patients instead of taking it themselves. they were delirious and stressed beyond belief, running on empty and very litttle sleep... often staying up for hours on end just to keep critically ill people alive. they had to carry people who were morbidly obese up flights of stairs when the lower floors were abandoned because of flooding. for their efforts, some were even abused by the their patients' families. the judges should hear them out, make the whole process brief and as painless and possible, and then give them all medals for being HEROES.

i can't imagine what horrors these people faced, under siege from drug addicts & criminals, totally abandoned by their own mayor & governor and city officials. it is utterly appalling what they went through, and i believe that they acted in the best interests of the patients who were suffering and would probably have died soon anyway.. at least they tried to make it a humane death.

judges-- please don't torture them too much, they've already been through enough!!!