LA - Hurricane Katrina, Doctors Euthanized Patients?, 2005

[concernedperson]

I agree with Details on this one. So glad it turned out this way. There was some mention of 3 lawsuits from family members of those who died. Will have to see how those go.

More than likely they were not facing reality and think they can get a few bucks. This was a traumatic time and I am sure the family members got themselves way away from harms way and left their loved ones for someone else to attend to. Just my experience from the group down there.

 

[Opie]

I have not gone back and re-read this whole thread, but I seem to recall discussions about just those very things.

 

[Details]

The one I remember most was someone whose mother went in for an amputation (diabetes or some such), and died. They seemed to be the most in denial. But when your limb is in bad enough shape that they're going to amputate it, you are in bad shape. And if it can't be amputated due to lack of power - the poison goes through the body and can kill in the best of circumstances - let alone in an overheated, unpowered, humid environment.

I just hope, if it goes to trial, that the jurors are reasonably clearheaded and unsentimental - too often a jury will award money to someone because they feel sorry for them, rather than because the person paying the money did something wrong.

 

[concernedperson]

The one I remember most was someone whose mother went in for an amputation (diabetes or some such), and died. They seemed to be the most in denial. But when your limb is in bad enough shape that they're going to amputate it, you are in bad shape. And if it can't be amputated due to lack of power - the poison goes through the body and can kill in the best of circumstances - let alone in an overheated, unpowered, humid environment.

I just hope, if it goes to trial, that the jurors are reasonably clearheaded and unsentimental - too often a jury will award money to someone because they feel sorry for them, rather than because the person paying the money did something wrong.

I was on a jury with a similar situation. We ended up paying for the medical but not for any abuse of the system. The plaintiff was clearly trying to abuse the system. She was a deadbeat then and probably is now. The only reason they got medical is I was tired of the bickering. The loud jurors were use to the abusing the system.So, the others and I conceded the medical and fought the rest. We won. No large settlement for her stupidity. And, entitlement issues.

 

[Details]

I think I might be obnoxious enough to fight it - I'll never know unless I get one of those juries.

My mom had a friend on one - doctor takes coworkers - doctors, nurses, etc. on his boat for a cruise, one nurse arrives a little drunk, proceeds to get extremely drunk - stealling into the liquor, fighting every attempt to cut her off while merely buzzed. They finally lock her below, she escapes, and jumps overboard, ends up paralyzed. They get back to the jury room, and the foreman says, "Well, how much should we give her?" - not even a question of if the doctor was in any way responsible. In that case - she managed to get them to look at the circumstances, and they found the doctor not liable.

But at the start, they were just sorry for a young woman paralyzed, and wanted to give her money - without thinking about who paid it, and if they deserved the verdict.

 

[MeoW333]

It was mercy killings, not murder. The nurses and doctor had a lot of patients to tend to, not enough resources. Those they euthanized were the worst off and would have felt more pain had they not done so. It sounds like the familys' are just trying to make a buck out of this whole ordeal. If they truly cared they would have been at the bedside of their dying relatives.
With only 3 nurses/doctor, and many patients, these medics did the best they could. To bring about charges is ridiculous when you have that nursing home owner running around who abandoned his patients. That is sick, where are his charges, why no uproar about that?
Hopefully now hospitals have evacuation plans in place in case of another catastrophe. If i were sick and dying i would beg the nurses or doctor to put me out of my misery instead of die in pain.

 

[SewingDeb]

I thought the nursing home owners were charged...both the man and his wife.

I agree with you that if any were killed, it was a mercy killing and the family should be glad their loved one did not continue to suffer under those terrible conditions.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

I am glad the doctor was found not guilty--The circumstances at the time were exceptionally horrendous---But the Nursing Home Owners case is an enitrely different story--That was clearly murder--I hope they are convicted of at least something--It was definitely one of the most tragic incidents that arose from that nightmare time

 

[SewingDeb]

O/T but there is news in the Nursing Home case. Guess they are ready to start the trial:

July 23rd:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/8653416.html

I will try to find that thread and post it there as well. I know many are very interested in seeing justice for those two.



NEW ORLEANS — Notices have gone out for potential jurors in the case against the owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died in flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

The notices were sent to residents of West Feliciana Parish after the highly publicized trial was moved to St. Francisville. At a hearing today, lawyers in the case will talk about how the jury will be picked. The trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 13.

“That’s one of a number of pretrial issues we’ll be discussing,” said James Cobb, attorney for Salvador and Mabel Mangano, the couple who own St. Rita’s Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish. “It should be a busy day.”

The Manganos each face 35 counts of negligent homicide. Each count carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

 

[Details]

The nursing home owners are a completely different story. They should be charged with murder.