Court Documents: Hospital Gave Lethal Injections to Patients During Hurricane Katrina

[s0nny80y]

Oh my God.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022201.html

Court Documents: Hospital Gave Lethal Injections to Patients During Hurricane Katrina

By John-Henry Westen

NEW ORLEANS, February 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Just after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans rumors circulated that at least one hospital had euthanized patients during the mayhem. LifeSiteNews.com reported in September 2005, that an unnamed doctor admitted to a UK newspaper that such activities had taken place at Memorial Medical Center (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05091205.html ). In October another doctor at the hospital confirmed in a CNN interview that he suspected such activities and admitted he left the hospital saying he would rather abandon patients than actively kill them. (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05101303.html ) Later in October hospital workers were subpoenaed for an investigation (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102806.html ).

National Public Radio now reports on its access to court documents in the case. In a February 16 report, NPR says it has reviewed secret court documents related to the investigation and not yet released to the public. The documents, says NPR "reveal chilling details about events at Memorial hospital in the chaotic days following the storm, including hospital administrators who saw a doctor filling syringes with painkillers and heard plans to give patients lethal doses. The witnesses also heard staff discussing the agonizing decision to end patients' lives."

The allegations revolve around a group of patients left on the seventh floor at Memorial Medical Center. This floor was leased to a different entity, LifeCare Hospitals. According to NPR, the patients on the seventh floor were all DNR patients -- they had "do not resuscitate" orders.

The report describes the deplorable conditions in the hospital which was left without power, without sewage removal facilities, and in soaring temperatures with looters attempting to enter the hospital.

Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization that leads the disability community's opposition to legalized assisted suicide, euthanasia and other forms of medical killing, points to a section of the NPR report suggesting the staff wanted to eliminate the patients so they could themselves escape.

The NPR report states, "According to statements given to an investigator in the attorney general's office, LifeCare's pharmacy director, the director of physical medicine and an assistant administrator say they were told that the 'evacuation plan' for the seventh floor was to not leave any living patients behind, and that 'a lethal dose would be administered', according to their statements in court documents."

Commenting, Not Dead Yet, says, "In other words, the only way the staff could evacuate was if they could report there were no more living patients to take care of. This was not about compassion or mercy. It was about throwing someone else over the side of the lifeboat in order to save themselves."

Not Dead Yet compared the allegations to what transpired at a New Orleans nursing home where 34 residents who were abandoned by staff drowned. "Death by drowning is easy to prove and so the owners of the nursing home are charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide," said Not Dead Yet. "It's unclear what will happen in the case of LifeCare medical staff. It's hard to prove morphine medication overdoses in badly decomposed bodies."

The group admits the hospital staff "must have been exhausted and scared", but it says, "that doesn't make the alleged killings merciful" as some reports have suggested.

Listen to the full NPR report:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5220802

(with tip from http://lostbudgie.blogspot.com/ )

 

[kennythebomb]

This is horrible...

 

[Solid Lifters]

OK, it really sounds like that these people were too much of a burden, and were outright murdered by the medical staff for their convenience.

Life sentences in jail for all that participated, if this is true.

If they had little hope, or even no hope, of survival, leaving them there still alive would have been a lot better. Cowardly, but better.

I'm all for anyone tired of life, with no hope of getting better, to rid themselves of their life. It's their's to do what they want with it. But, I doubt these people, and their families, were notified what the medical staff had in mind. And that is the truly disgusting part.

 

[Shannon]

We seem to be forgetting that all the patients had DNR orders, in which case they were probably all terminally ill anyway.

Although, I do find it horrid that they euthanised the patients just so they could evacuate themselves.

 

[FoolKiller]

We seem to be forgetting that all the patients had DNR orders, in which case they were probably all terminally ill anyway.

DNR is not the same as KMN (Kill Me Now).

[QUOTE[Although, I do find it horrid that they euthanised the patients just so they could evacuate themselves.[/QUOTE]
Is it euthanization or murder? A DNR means that if they quit breathing or their heartbeat stops, or any other life function quits, that you don't try to bring them back, not that cause the life function to stop.

It was the floor for patients who didn't want any kind of life support while they tried to survive a medical ailment. It was not the floor people went to for assisted suicide.

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

DNR is not the same as KMN (Kill Me Now).


Is it euthanization or murder? A DNR means that if they quit breathing or their heartbeat stops, or any other life function quits, that you don't try to bring them back, not that cause the life function to stop.

It was the floor for patients who didn't want any kind of life support while they tried to survive a medical ailment. It was not the floor people went to for assisted suicide.

I agree. Just because they didn't want to be revived if their conditioned went to far, doesn't give anyone the right to quicken the process, especially when the only person who benefits is the person administering the injection. DNR don't always mean they're on their death bed either, in fact many patients that have placed themselves on DNR did so because of religious, financial, or other personal reasons. Those patients could have survived the storm, been rescued, and gone on to live longer lives, nobody knows for sure, and especially didn't know back then.

Everyone is going to die at one point in time, even those doctors who murdered the patients, maybe we should inject them with the excuse that their going to die one day anyways, so maybe its better just to let them go now. It'd be nice to see stupid doctors get a taste of their own medicine. 👍