Patients Euthenized In Katrina
It’s very, very difficult to be the kind of paranoid truth-seeker I am and actually know something really, really big and not tell anyone for almost a year. The most I did was say “I know something I’m not supposed to know and I can’t say what it is.”
The truth is that I promised a very good friend when he told me not to print it here on this website or any website, for that matter, until it was a matter of public record. In fact, I still know more facts than have been in the news so I won’t spill those. Heck, I’m not even going to say, who told me or why, but I will say that days after the incident I knew about it; it’s been killing me not to say anything all of this time.
Attorney General Charles Foti Jr.’s allegations Tuesday that Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were principals in the second-degree murder of four unidentified patients raised Hurricane Katrina’s legacy of misery still higher.
Foti ordered the arrest of Pou, Budo and Landry on Monday and said he would turn the case over to Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan for prosecution. In the meantime, Rick Simmons, Pou’s attorney, said the allegations are false. “There is no motivation, and there is no homicide,” he said.
In a supporting affidavit and later at a news conference, Foti did not speculate about how his investigators came to believe that Pou, Budo and Landry allegedly decided it was necessary to end the lives of four patients ranging in age from 61 to 90. The patients were identified by their initials: H.A., R.S., I.W. and E.E.
Foti’s affidavit said witnesses began to hear of a decision to administer lethal doses of medicine to some patients on the morning of Sept. 1 as the evacuation of other patients and staff from Memorial was being discussed.
The affidavit said one witness saw Pou and two nurses moving among patients on the hospital’s seventh floor. Foti said they injected four patients, including one man, E.E., who was conscious and alert.
“Dr. Pou said she was going to tell patient E.E. that she was going to give him something to help with his dizziness,” said a witness identified as K.J., director of physical medicine for LifeCare Hospitals. LifeCare is another hospital chain that leased space on Memorial’s seventh floor to run an acute-care unit.
[…]
“I can’t even imagine what they must have gone through trying to do what was best for their patients,” Magnus said. “But we draw that bright line we don’t want doctors and nurses to cross. They had an obligation to patients to do everything possible to relieve their suffering — but to intentionally euthanize, if that’s in fact what took place, crosses that bright line.”
Moreover, there is another complication, ethicists said: consent.
“What if all those patients didn’t want that?” Magnus said. “I doubt they knew just what each of those patients wanted, what each of their surrogates wanted. I doubt they talked to each of the surrogates.
“If it’s that they decided to intentionally euthanize patients . . . the lack of consent makes it worse, even under those horrible circumstances.” [“Ethicists: Any deliberate killing crosses the line” (The Times-Picayune)]
Remember, this could have been your mother, your grandmother, your family member and someone else made a decision for him or her to end his or her life before his or her time. In the case of these particular four patients, they were not terminal; they were not begging to die.
tags: murder, euthanasia, Hurricane Katrina, Memorial Hospital, Times-Picayune
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on July 19, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Tamara said:
Whoa. That is bizarre. Kudos to you for keeping it under your proverbial hat for so long.
on July 20, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Adrastos said:
Umm, what exactly was in this post that was new info? I saw a teaser but no substance.
on July 31, 2006 at 4:18 am
Rachel said:
Are you really not saying anything? hope so
on July 31, 2006 at 9:02 am
n. mallory said:
You know…when I worked for the government and had security clearance, all the stuff I saw was pretty boring. It was easy to keep that stuff secret.
This I have an opinion about…but an honest respect for my friend. Darn it.
Anyway, as I’ve said in several comment sections elsewhere, I’m a supporter of assisted suicide. However, I fully believe that the person who’s being assisted along must be a willing participant and there is no evidence thant these four patients were willing or even knew they were about to be helped along. That’s murder.