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Associated PressLa. doctor cleared in patient deaths recalls stormBy MARY FOSTER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 21, 2008 12:18 AM EDT
NEW ORLEANS -
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Pou, the doctor accused - and later cleared - of giving lethal doses of drugs to four patients during the chaos recalled the four days of misery in a recent interview with The Associated Press. It was her most detailed account of the scene where 34 patients died since the storm three years ago. "You can't really understand what it was like if you weren't there," Pou said. "Nothing can describe it."
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After the storm passed Monday, Aug. 29, it seemed the decision not to evacuate patients and staff was a good one. They didn't know levees were collapsing. "We made it through the storm pretty good," Pou remembered. "On Monday, it was just a little hot, but we had some generators working and food and water twice a day." By Tuesday, water was rising in the streets, eventually reaching 10 feet. The hospital basement flooded and the generators failed. When nightfall came, the hospital and the city were in darkness. Water pressure dropped, toilets backed up and the temperatures began to swelter. "The smell got to be rancid in no time," Pou said. "It burned the back of your throat."
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They gathered supplies, rationed food and water with non-patients, and prayed. About seven medical staffers, including Pou, stayed with patients. Others went to the roof and the ground floor to coordinate the intermittent rescue efforts with the few boats and helicopters that showed up. "When a helicopter left, we never knew if they would be back," Pou recalled. "They might be sent to another rescue. And after dark it was too dangerous for them to fly at all." Under the military's orders, the staff did reverse triage. The healthiest patients were taken out first in an effort to save the greatest number of people. Many had to be carried to the roof. It was slow, backbreaking work, with as many as 10 people struggling up the dark stairs with a stretcher. At least 34 people died waiting for rescuers.
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A year after their arrest, the New Orleans district attorney dropped charges against the nurses, and a grand jury refused to indict Pou. Two civil lawsuits in the deaths are pending. "I felt very alone," Pou said of her year of fighting the criminal accusations. "Even if people were around me I felt an intense loneliness. It was as if no one knew what I was going through." Pou's supporters believed she and the nurses acted heroically. A group of doctors and nurses held a rally on the anniversary of her arrest, and hundreds turned in support.
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