Doctor says FEMA ordered him to stop treating hurricane victims

[Lori Price CLG]

Doctor says FEMA ordered him to stop treating hurricane victims

In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn't registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I begged him to let me continue," said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. "People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.

<snip>

Lori Price
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

[texpatriot2004]

1. Sounds criminal on the part of FEMA. n/t

[Kurovski]

2. Dupe.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1786336

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4796780

And I think there is one more besides.

[htuttle]

3. You're not allowed to save lives until you fill out a 27B-6 form first

[leveymg]

9. Mr. Tuttle - Did * fill out the right paperwork to kill all those people?

You're the expert on forms and procedures at Central Services. What's the waiver form for negligent homicide?:bounce:

[rox63]

17. Thanks for the "Brazil" quotes!

My all-time fave movie!

[hootinholler]

25. Damn you!

Now that song is stuck in my head, and I spewed all over my freznell lense.

-Hoot

[leveymg]

27. It's a 1985 documentary of early 21st Century America

Funniest, most depressing film ever made about crack-pot totalitarianism. Monty Python meets George Orwell. Perfectly captures the incompetent fascism of BushCo.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. FEMA supersedes Louisiana Good Samaritan law?

I posted this reply on the thread in LBN, also. I'd like to know if this was legal for them to force this doctor to stop rendering aid.

B. Any physician, surgeon, or member of the medical profession who is not licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana but who holds a valid license to practice medicine in any other state of the United States who gratuitously renders care or services at the scene of an emergency as herein provided shall not be charged with violation of the Louisiana Medical Practice Act.

This would be considered an emergency would it not? According to LA law he was within his legal rights to offer emergency care.

PDF file http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/-1/goodsamlaws.pdf

What FEMA did isn't moral, but is what they did even legal?

[pitohui]

5. it doesn't sound right to me either

blanco has now specifically signed paperwork allowing outside vets & docs to give care for the duration but i don't think she should have needed to

i think fema way overstepped here

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Even without that paper work

I think he was within his legal rights. It was a life or death emergency situation. I could see that needing to be signed for nonemergency type treatments, but not for something like this.

If this is true, then it's murder.

[LittleClarkie]

6. The guy had it right when he said

that people were being murdered by bureaucracy.

Just get the fuck out of the way, FEMA.

[left is right]

19. killed by bureaucracy...

I have heard similar things for many days now, and I have to voice an objection. Technically, my boss's bosses are bureaucrats, I and my coworkers are part of the bureaucratic machine--we do our jobs and follow established procedures and sometimes we throw out the procedures when they interfere with getting an important job done. What killed these people were political appointees, who didn't know how to/or had an agenda not to get the job done. Believe me, the real bureaucrats were just as frustrated as the rest of the world at those who were running the show. And no, I am not part of FEMA or the DHS

[OregonBlue]

8. He didn't have a tasker number

I have a theory about what was going on down there. I have posted this elsewhere at DU

I suspect that when they created Homeland Security, they privatized HSD and FEMA and the Army Corp. Those that are privately contracted get tasker numbers. All those people there trying to get in and help and people being turned back with gas, water, ice, etc.,didn't have a tasker number. Bet tasker number is the accounting mechanism by which contracters get paid.

Who was contracted for the buses? What was their tasker number? Why couldn't they have brought in buses from other large cities nearby? Why did they go all over the country looking for private companies to provide them?

Why weren't the local doctors and morticians that offered to do the body collection and identifcation for free not used. They don't have a contract. They don't have a tasker number.

Which churches have tasker numbers? Which charities have tasker numbers?

I'm afraid that when this actually gets exposed, we're going to discover that a whole lot of people had a whole lot of contracts to make a whole lot of money off of disasters.

I'm suspect very strongly that that is what they don't want exposed.

So, my advice, follow the tasker number!!

[theHandpuppet]

10. Fascinating

This deserves a kick.

[OregonBlue]

11. Thanks. The worst part is that I also suspect they thought

it would work. Private contractors, churches, charities would do the job, get paid and no one would complain or be the wiser. Problem is, it didn't work out that way so, now there are all those volunteers down there saying WHAT THE HELL'S A TASKER NUMBER and they don't want to answer the question. Something stinks.

[theHandpuppet]

12. And thanks to the Repukes, no official investigation, either

Fancy that -- what a coincidence!

To hell with Congress -- who says the citizens can't have an investigation of their own?

[Stephanie]

14. Where did you get this term "tasker number" and can you post more about it

maybe post a thread just on this topic - I had no idea

[OregonBlue]

18. I'll do a google. During those hellish days, there were many

people who were turned back who were asked for their tasker number. I remember one guy (search and rescue I think) who was really mad and kept saying, What in the hell is a tasker number? Also reports in newspapers about people trying to deliver aid being asked for their tasker number and when they didn't have one, they were turned back.

I don't know if this is true. I just kept hearing it and it started me to thinking, what would a tasker number be. And then the thing about having to round up buses and some company going all over trying to find them, bothered me. Didn't they have loads of school buses in towns that were close that weren't devistated?

I could be wrong but it just hit me that something stunk about that whole turning rescue folks and aid away. I believe that is the real scandal in all of this and what we need to get to the bottom of.

[leveymg]

13. Making a profit on negligent homicide? Makes this all the more criminal.

If there's indeed a pattern and practice to this -- and you may have identified it - the officials responsible are chargable under Murder 2, rather than just multiple counts of Negligent Homicide.

Furthermore, if profit proves to be a motive behind these homicides, it's murder one with aggravating circumstances, a capital offense. Lousiana allows the death penalty as an option in cases of first-degree murder, treason and aggravated rape when the victim is under the age of 12. The potential sentence is death by lethal injection.

[AirAmFan]

26. Another approach: Find WHO stopped the doctor and then you may learn HOW & WHY.

The multi-megabyte "National Recovery Plan" describes a group of field bureaucrats whose job description includes "badging and credentialing", "access control", and "force protection". See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4799309

[spuddonna]

15. Sent to KO and Cooper.....

This is so disgusting... Who comes along and tells someone doing chest compressions to stop!! How do you do that?! What kind of Bean Counter From Hell do you have to be?! JMJ...

[AirAmFan]

31. The 'National Recovery Plan' creates teams of field specialists whose very

job description seems to give them no positive role in hurricanes and floods, just a mandate to interfere with first responders and volunteers doing worthwhile things!

There have been several DU threads about first reponders from elsewhere in the nation who couldn't penetrate tight "Homeland Security" around the Gulf disaster zone, and about officials who repeatedly decided it was not "safe" for busdrivers, helicopter pilots, and boat operators to enter New Orleans, as well as this report of a physician stopped from saving the life of a dying woman. Just who the officials were who seemed to have a nutty bureaucratic agenda of their own has not been determined.

But, if you look at DHS's organizational chart and National Response Plan, "ESF 13" for the Texas or Atlanta "Regional Resource Coordination Centers" VI or IV jumps out as the most likely culprit. Has anyone run across news stories about specific "Public Safety and Security" bureaucrats preventing rescue operations during Katrina? The job description for "ESF 13" officials sounds like almost pure bureacratic interference with useful rescue efforts: "badging and credentialing", "access control", "site security", and "force protection".

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4799309 for details about FEMA "Emergency Suppport Function" teams.

[spuddonna]

32. Whoa, thanks for the link!

I totally agree!

It sounds like these asshats from FEMA are following to the letter the things listed: Badging and Credentialing (this would explain why they stopped the Dr.'s from treating the patients since they weren't 'credentialed'), Access Control (the piles of NG, Army that were sitting just outside the city - WWL talked a lot about that), Site Security (NG and others patrolling in front of office bldgs and banks - the blog Interdictor has been doing a lot on this. The guy blogging runs a Data Ctr that managed to survive Katrina and keep operations going http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/?skip=40 "Last Night" is a good example of the 'protection' they are receiving), Force Protection (I dunno, the Blackwater mercs?).

BTW, I liked this paragraph in that thread too:"Recognizing the unlikelihood of a massive nuclear attack, Witt also moved the agency out of the nuclear war business, making available to natural disaster responses many of the resources the agency had accumulated in preparation for a Soviet attack. One hundred FEMA disaster specialists were freed up to deal with natural catastrophes.""

Yes, because back then we had a diplomatic foreign policy! It was a bit more complicated than, "You're either with us, or against us..." and we weren't as worried about loose nukes! Now, who knows who has them cause Bush stopped cracking down on Russia...

Thanks for the info... I'm going to go read more of it... :)

[AirAmFan]

35. IMO, a "force protection" obsession from SOMEONE is the key to

understanding why people were led to strarve and swelter in filth in the Superdome for so long. I heard many MSM reports that buses and trucks were lined up outside NOLA to bring in help, but repeatedly SOMEONE determined that it was not "safe" for bus drivers, truck drivers, boat pilots, helicopter pilots, etc.

The screwed-up "National Response Plan" appears to empower crews of field bureaucrats with clipboards to bring rescue and evacuation operations to a halt on the slightest whim. Leave it to "Homeland Security" to somehow find "terrorists" EVERYWHERE, and to respond with roadblocks and red tape.

[spuddonna]

36. Yeah, I just watched a Nightline I'd taped w/Ted Koppel, Richard Clarke...

Ted was saying that the helicopters wouldn't go in to NO hospitals because of 'sniper fire' but then the little air traffic they did have said 'they had no corroborating reports of this happening'... Another instance where 'terrah' must be prevented! (sigh)

It's a total fubar mess, no matter what the reasoning... I am seriously scared if we ever have a bio attack in the US... At the rate FEMA goes, we'll all be dead for a week before they get their asses in gear. Oh wait, maybe that IS the plan! :mad:

[AirAmFan]

37. Some of the "sniper fire" that triggered bureaucratic 'force protection'

concerns surely came from suburban police using gunfire to turn back would-be African-American escapees from NOLA. Thus suburban police racial stereotypes reinforced FEMA bureaucrats' racial stereotypes, resulting in suffering for thousands of people, and in death for some.

Then, when 500 heavily-armed MPs finally drove in to the Superdome, they found only a remarkably calm and peaceful crowd, desperate for help.

[TahitiNut]

16. My response to the 'official' would be "Shoot me, you dumb fuck!"

There's no room on my planet for that kind of malicious ignorance. None.

[knitter4democracy]

22. My husband's response:

He told me he'd shock that guy and then go back to running the code. He got a really dark look on his face--he's an internist who ran more codes than he can remember as a resident. That was inexcusable.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. What a bureaucratic nightmare

It would be almost humorous if lives weren't involved.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[usregimechange]

23. I can't believe it!

[OregonBlue]

24. Story on Keith Oberman about FEMA still buying ice.

If my theory is correct, they have a contract with a certain company to provide ice and it has not been maxed out yet. Anyone want to place a wager?

[bettyellen]

28. kicked.......

[spindoctor]

29. A doctor from that evacuated hospital said the same thing

When he and his staff arrived at the shelter, there was a need for medical assistance but he was told that he could not provide it because of liability issues.

liability schmiability. Pure insanity.

[LibertyLou]

30. MASSIVE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT NEEDED ASAP

Calling all personal injury lawyers.

I'm serious. Big-time Personal injury trial lawyers need to be called.

If anyone knows surviving family members of those who died by the intentional negligence and direct obstruction of aid...they need to start calling lawyers right freakin' now.

[bettyellen]

33. KICK

[bettyellen]

34. .....