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One of the physicians then produced a handful of syringes…
Posted by Kim on October 13th, 2005
It was only a matter of time before this came out as something more than just a rumor. I suspect in the coming days we will be hearing a lot more about this. The doctors and nurses and other staff who were/are employed by this hospital MUST be held up to par for any actions they may have taken…to “euthanize” another human being-in good times and in bad times, is wrong.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — Three days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, staff members at the city’s Memorial Medical Center had repeated discussions about euthanizing patients they thought might not survive the ordeal, according to a doctor and nurse manager who were in the hospital at the time.
The Louisiana attorney general’s office is investigating allegations that mercy killings occurred and has requested that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital after the storm.
Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said investigators have told him they think euthanasia may have been committed.
“They thought someone was going around injecting people with some sort of lethal medication,” Minyard said.
Dr. Bryant King, who was working at Memorial when conditions were at their worst, told CNN that while he did not witness any acts of euthanasia, “most people know something happened that shouldn’t have happened.”
Over the course of several weeks, CNN spoke with staff members from Memorial, who recounted the dismal situation inside the hospital after levees protecting New Orleans were breached on Monday, August 29, and most of the city filled up with water. By Wednesday, the situation had become desperate.
“We weren’t really functioning as a hospital but as a shelter,” King said. “We had no electricity. There was no water. It was hot. People are dying. We thought it was as bad as it could get. Why weren’t we being evacuated? That was our biggest thing. We should be gone right now.”
Do they kill people who live in shelters? NO. Do people die naturally? YES. Let it be. Don’t hasten it along. It goes against every medical principal we go by.
“It was battle conditions,” said Fran Butler, a nurse manager. “It was as bad as being out in the field.”
The staff was desperate, Butler said.
“My nurses wanted to know what was the plan? Did they say to put people out of their misery? Yes. … They wanted to know how to get them out of their misery,” she said.
Yes I am sure these nurses were saying these things. They wanted to go home. They wanted to get away from those conditions. It must have been horrible. But to advocate the “mercy” killing of patients? WHO are the nurses to make such a choice? They of all people know the human spirit can survive the worst conditions.
But King said he is convinced the discussion of euthanasia was more than talk. He said another doctor came to him at 9 a.m. Thursday and recounted a conversation with a hospital administrator and a third doctor who suggested patients be put out of their misery.
King said that the second physician — who opposed mercy killing — told him that “this other [third] doctor said she’d be willing to do it.”
About three hours later, King said, the second-floor triage area where he was working was cleared of everyone except patients, a second hospital administrator and two doctors, including the physician who had first raised the question of mercy killing.
King said the administrator asked those who remained if they wanted to join in prayer — something he said had not occurred at the hospital since Katrina ripped through the city.
One of the physicians then produced a handful of syringes, King said.
“I don’t know what’s in the syringes. … The only thing I heard the physician say was, ‘I’m going to give you something to make you feel better,’ ” King said.
“I don’t know what the physician was going to give them, but we hadn’t been given medications like that, to make people feel better, or any sort of palliative care,” he said. “We hadn’t been doing that up to this point.”
King said he decided he would have no part of what he believed was about to happen. He grabbed his bag to leave. He said one of the doctors hugged him.
King said he doesn’t know what happened next. He boarded a boat and left the hospital.
THIS makes me sick to my stomach. It’s quite obvious that something really bad happened at this hospital. It’s obvious that patients can no longer trust their medical caregivers to honor their lives, no matter what. I’m disgusted with these doctors and nurses.
October 13th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
:evil: This is a truly horrid story. I feel ill. Regards the actual ethics of this, is there ANY provision for this sort of thing in the USA if someone is in agony and certifiably terminal?
Even if there is, I don’t think this would apply here since they should have been evacuated in the first place.
Off Topic: How are you holding up with the rain? From the news it looks almost as bad as Hurricane Floyd was down here.
Stay well stay dry and stay safe.
October 14th, 2005 at 2:04 am
If any of these doctors or nurses put some patients “out of their misery”, they should be charged with murder! This isn’t communist china. When those in the medical field play God, they expose themselves as psychopaths. There should be ZERO tolerance for murderous actions like this! They are a cancerous blot on the outstanding medical professionals who honor their oaths. America is about life, not death based on some egomaniac doctor or nurses moronic assumptions. Lock them up and throw away the key!
October 18th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
Shizno
Today’s dose of NIF – News, Interesting & Funny … It’s Kerry-180 Tuesday