Bodies tested in probe of possible mercy killings (at N.O. hospitals)

[KamaAina]

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL120205euthanize.306eb284.html

Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard, who's conducting Katrina-related autopsies, said Friday that samples from between "75 and 100 people" who were patients at various hospitals and nursing homes have been sent to a lab in Philadelphia for toxicology testing....

At least 140 patients at New Orleans-area hospitals and nursing homes died during the storm and its aftermath. Two owners of a nursing home in nearby St. Bernard Parish were charged in September with 34 counts of negligent homicide for flood deaths at that facility.

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti's office has subpoenaed 73 people -- all hospital employees -- in a probe into whether euthanasia caused deaths at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. The toxicology tests are part of that investigation....

Steven Campanini, spokesman for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns Memorial Medical Center, said he had no information about the tests. "We continue to cooperate with Attorney General Foti in the investigation, and we support him," Campanini said Friday.

Who would have thought? A privately owned, for-profit hospital the worst offender? I'm shocked. Shocked! :sarcasm:

This may seem like a drop in the bucket when we're hearing stories about over 6,000 missing, but it's the principle of the thing; you do not just put people down because it's too inconvenient to evacuate them. When you think about it, that's basically what Bush** and Brownie did, only on a much larger scale, and using neglect in place of the syringe.

[babylonsister]

1. The coroner must be pretty suspicious to send the bodies

to Phila. This is just awful on so many levels.

[Warpy]

2. For profit hospitals typically have the nicest rooms

and the worst staffing and have gotten into trouble for things like expecting housekeeping staff to fill in as phlebotomists.

With no staff to ventilate patients manually, and with patients who were no longer getting adequate oxygen, it was a horrible choice to make. Do they sedate the patients and let them go as peacefully as possible, or do they let the patients slowly drown in their own fluids?

That the former was done is no surprise to me. That it was necessary to do it is appalling.

Some of those people would likely have recovered had deliveries of fuel to hospital generators been allowed by FEMA, which had the city sealed off to all NGO aid. Their deaths are the fault of an administration that used an agency set up to help US citizens as a dumping ground for the least competent of their cronies.

Alas, they'll probably hang the medical staff, instead.

[Psephos]

3. I hear you, but I have a different opinion regarding the cause

I believe if we want to be effective in criticizing federal response to Katrina, we have to avoid unfactual assertions.

FEMA has no police authority, and cannot physically seal off a city. That is the role of federal, state, and local police and military agencies. There's plenty to fault FEMA for, but erecting barricades to prevent refueling of hospitals is not one of them.

Second, the real issue with fuel for hospital generators is how much fuel was stockpiled, and how hospitals dealt with the short-term crisis of no power and patients on ventilators. Even if FEMA "had the city sealed off," hospital back-up generators would be running, provided they weren't under water. If the hospitals had enough reserve fuel for several days operation, then they would probably have time to find some people to squeeze ambu bags (manual ventilation) or make evacuation plans for the critical patients. If they only had, say, 12 hours' supply, then there is no way in the immediate aftermath they would be able to organize a team. BTW, squeezing an ambu bag for more than about 20 minutes is hard work and leads to full fatigue of the forearms and strain in the finger tendons. You need several people minimum available 24/7 for each patient.

I would prefer the spotlight be put on hospital disaster planners in this case. New Orleans has long been identified as one of the three greatest long-term power outage risks in the U.S. Why was that not reflected in the hospitals' fuel reserves?

Peace.

[DeltaLady]

5. It is my understanding that the generators were submerged.

You have to understand that this was the worst case scenario. Though New Orleans has flooded before, it has never been to this extent and duration. The levees broke because the corps of engineers and the outside contractors they hired did not build them to spec.(17'less than the plans called for) To my mind, they and Brownie should be charged with negligent homicide for all those who died unnecessarily. Personally, I'd like the trial to take place in New Orleans; let true justice be done. Then and only then will the american people be reassured that this will never happen again in any of our cities.

I am furious nobody is talking jail time. Angola will find space to put them! Any attorneys out there willing to take this on? It is truly in the interests of all of us, not just New Orleanians.

[Psephos]

7. I'm always glad to hear the opinion of a local. :-) n/t

[upi402]

4. they hate life outside the uterus

and that's where i've learnt to hate them

[lovuian]

6. Heres a little reality check for Americans

if the hospital is flooding and no electricity and lets understand thousands are missing still and your medical staff can't get there
Plus your medical staff is not a government worker... these are sometimes people who are from temp agency and don't even work for the hospital... these people have no obligation to the hospital
yes there are sick people there but in this case of life and death
its survival...so people are swimming for their lives
like the Titanic a tragedy and disaster

What people don't realize is our medical establishment has one very obvious flaw... its not government run so medical personal can do what they want...they are not military ... they are paid by the hospital of which this hospital will probably go bankrupt so there is no dedication here get my drift...

A good hospital needs to evacuate early thats what has been learned from previous disasters...

[KamaAina]

8. In fact, the hospitals were what held up the citywide evacuation

A good hospital needs to evacuate early thats what has been learned from previous disasters...

Mayor Nagin has been asked repeatedly, usually by the likes of Faux News, what took him so long to order the mandatory citywide evacuation. His response is that a mandatory evacuation order includes the hospitals (and hotels), and that his attorneys needed time to craft exemptions for them.

[newswolf56]

9. Ever more definitive proof the aftermath of Katrina was genocide:

and now not just genocide by neglect, but genocide by commission, the ethos of capitalism expressed and clear and undeniable terms: "these people cost too much to keep alive; anybody we can't make a profit off of anymore is to be exterminated."

Not just the aftermath of Katrina, but U.S. post-LBJ social policy in a single sentence.

How many more atrocities will it take before the nation (and especially white America) wakes up to the fact capitalism is Republicanism is fascism -- and the aftermath of Katrina was merely our first clear glimpse of American fascism in action.

[cornermouse]

10. Baloney.

Very few people go through everything required to become a doctor or a nurse for money. If they want lots of money there are easier, safer, and cleaner ways to get it.

I think Psephos has it correctly.