Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

nolabarkeep · Sep 02, 2009, 08:46 AM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

Why is it that no one mentions the fact that Memorial hospital was not alone in what happened following the flood? It's the same blindness that the national media suffers from when doing stories of recovery in my the city. They almost exclusively cover the lower 9th and when it comes to hospital deaths, all you here about is Memorial. Well guess what? People were dying all over the city and many of them experienced the same fate at other hospitals. I think about what these healthcare workers experienced often. I honestly don't know how I would have handled the situation and neither do any of you who were not there.

spectral_ev · Sep 02, 2009, 11:52 AM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

I donated to the defense fund for Lori Budo and Sherri Landry, the nurses accused along with Dr. Pou. Whatever happened, I will never believe that they stayed on with any intention except saving as many patients as possible.
The article is troubling and a lot is left out. Since Dr.Pou is constrained by lawsuits from speaking the effect is prosecution without defense.
Why were the helicopters that arrived to evacuate patients not bringing in relief staff? There were volunteers from all over the country ready, willing and able to help. Many of them were kept far from where they were needed, by a FEMA run by an unqualified political crony.
Still, Dr.Fink makes a convincing case that the Memorial doctors, under extreme stress, crossed the line from easing death to hastening it. The case of Emmett Everett is very troubling.
Four days and no help. There needs to be an investigation of that.
Dr. Bryant King may have been correct in saying his colleagues were discussing euthanasia--but he left his patients to their care, only to make accusations after the fact. Perhaps he had reached his limit, but his actions were not heroic.

southernbeegirl · Sep 02, 2009, 01:32 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

Originally Posted by StNeotser

Yes, I remember even Shep Smith and Geraldo of Fox News being totally disgusted and telling it like it was.

yes! me too! and anderson cooper crying. i was glued to my tv for days. i couldnt believe what was happening inside our own country. noone was coming to help those people and the media recorded it all.

i dont know who forced/convinced them to change their coverage from acutality to pretend everything is great...but we saw it happen. i guess they think we are all stupid clones that will just conform to what they say is real even when we saw what was really happening.

and then to charge these women with murder. it disgusts me.

southernbeegirl · Sep 02, 2009, 01:36 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

Originally Posted by spectral_ev

I donated to the defense fund for Lori Budo and Sherri Landry, the nurses accused along with Dr. Pou. Whatever happened, I will never believe that they stayed on with any intention except saving as many patients as possible.
The article is troubling and a lot is left out. Since Dr.Pou is constrained by lawsuits from speaking the effect is prosecution without defense.
Why were the helicopters that arrived to evacuate patients not bringing in relief staff? There were volunteers from all over the country ready, willing and able to help. Many of them were kept far from where they were needed, by a FEMA run by an unqualified political crony.
Still, Dr.Fink makes a convincing case that the Memorial doctors, under extreme stress, crossed the line from easing death to hastening it. The case of Emmett Everett is very troubling.
Four days and no help. There needs to be an investigation of that.
Dr. Bryant King may have been correct in saying his colleagues were discussing euthanasia--but he left his patients to their care, only to make accusations after the fact. Perhaps he had reached his limit, but his actions were not heroic.

what also bothers me about the article is if helicopters could get in, why was it left to the exhausted staff to carry the people to the helipad? why could they not fly in with some big guys to help? why was it left to people who'd had no sleep for days, nothing to eat, no running water and probably small women at that. i just dont get it.

if King cared so much, why didnt he try to stop what he saw? he lost all credibility with me. i tend to lean towards dr pou than a coward who started slinging accusations after the fact.

Purple_Scrubs · Sep 02, 2009, 03:47 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

What a powerful story. So tragic that something like this can happen in our country in this day and time. Like others have said on this thread, it makes me very, very scared for how the pandemic may play out this winter.

spectral_ev · Sep 02, 2009, 04:52 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

the website Correntewire has a link to a New England Journal of Medicine article about Charity Hospital, where things went much better and the staff took care of one another and were able to save almost all their patients. Link here--

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/15/1550

very comforting, especially after reading the NYT article.

ImMrBill3, RN · Sep 02, 2009, 11:28 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

Originally Posted by C-DIFF PHIL RN

I was outside Picayune when Katrina came in. I must have had 12 code browns within 10min, scared ********. My brother was on duty for local ems around Biloxi and had cousins stationed around Gulfport with the Mississippi Nat. Guard. Went 3 weeks without running water or electrical power in south mississippi. So I think I can speak quiet matter of fact about the devastation and suffering many people went through. And I can tell you right now, that there was no way on earth any government or nation could have prepared for Katrina. Of course now after playing monday morining quarterback we can say what we should have would have done. But it really shows you that the government is limited to what it can do. Now there is always going to be people who will blame all of this on Bush, Brown, Cheney or Nagin, heck whoever is in charge gets the blame...now if Katrina II came and hit The Big Easy this week the same crap would happen, people will still be stuck getting sunburned on their roofs, nurses and docs would still be stuck in hospitals waiting for help and thugs would still be shooting at rescuers. this time we would be howling at the current admin.

I have to disagree with you. The federal gov't does have the facilities and capabilities to respond on a massive scale. Do you know how much material is moved into place for a military operation. Do remember "Shock and Awe"? A fraction of the supplies and equipment mobilized for the invasion of Iraq could have been brought to bear during Katrina and changed the results tremendously. Even just the amount of manpower organized and mobilized for the national political conventions would have made a huge difference. The standby forces of the US military are ready to travel half way around the world in hours and set up, operate and maintain field operations. Catastrophes are by definition overwheming but the response in this case was beyond pathetic and miniscule compared to the capabilities. I think the federal administration including the president displayed a clear lack of concern that is not characteristic of other administrations, previous disasters have been responded to more urgently and effectively on many occasions. This was not a simple case of something beyond the level of ability it was negligence.

C-DIFF PHIL RN · Sep 03, 2009, 11:33 AM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

again just speaking as someone who came pretty close to getting his dumbass blown away and saw what was going one. man vs nature..man always will lose. but sitting there saying the president displayed a clear lack of concern sounds a bit political to me. i very sure any president (obama, bush or anyother) that the american people elected who just had a class 5 hurricane strike a city will be concerened. also i think many people have a false idea of the limitations and capabilities that the govt can do in dealing with a disaster such as this. people say planning is everything but then again execution of that plan is a whole different animal.

*herring_RN* · Sep 03, 2009, 12:37 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

http://www.newsweek.com/id/133551

In January of 2001 President Bush appointed Joe Allbaugh head of FEMA. Mr. Allbaugh had no previous experience in disaster management.

In April of 2001 Budget Director Mitch Daniels announced the administration's would be downsizing and privatizing much of FEMA's work. Mr. Allbaugh said, "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
That same year FEMA had designated a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

In December of 2002 Mr. Allbaugh quit his job at FEMA. His friend Michael Brown was appointed head of FEMA. Mr Brown had no experience in disaster management . He had been fired from his previous job for poor management.

In March of 2003 FEMA was downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission was refocused on fighting acts of terrorism. Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

In September of 2004 FEMA denied Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests.

In June of 2004 The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans was decreased.

In June of 2005 the funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was cut by a record $71.2 million. Most of the cuts were to the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
While New Orleans was being devastated by Katrina the President and Senator McCain posed for a picture celebrating the Senators birthday.

I pray that President Obama is leading disaster preparations in a more competent manner.

**Elvish** · Sep 03, 2009, 01:56 PM

Re: Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

I'm not affiliated with ANY political party...and had ANY president displayed the lack of concern that President Bush displayed while NO was drowning, they would draw my ire. I'm not talking about politics here - I am talking about human decency and competency, which I didn't see. Until August 2005 I had a fairly good amount of faith in my government to do the right thing in a crisis.

I am no rocket scientist, but it was my understanding that it wasn't the hurricane that did so much damage as it was the broken levees. Water's a far more dangerous force of nature than wind, it seems. The ACE did the best they could but were ignored and underfunded. While people were drowning, starving, and sweltering, and while nurses and doctors were doing the best they could in a hospital with no power, water, nor supplies, our higher-ranking political officials were out doing what??

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Katrina: Memorial Hospital Patient Deaths

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