Posted on 09/14/2005 7:10:09 AM PDT by milwguy
Authorities said the toll would be lower if Salvador and Mable Mangano, owners of the St. Rita's nursing home in town of Chalmette, had heeded warnings to evacuate their patients as Katrina came ashore Aug. 29. "The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not," said Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. "They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people." The Manganos were released on $50,000 bond each; each of the 34 counts against them carries up to five years in prison. Their attorney, Jim Cobb, said his clients were innocent and had waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials of St. Bernard Parish that never came. Cobb said the Manganos were forced to make a difficult decision as Katrina approached: risk the health of the patients — many of them frail and on feeding tubes — in an evacuation, or keep them comfortable at the home through the storm. Tom Rodrigue, whose mother died in the home, was not satisfied. "She deserved the chance, you know, to be rescued instead of having to drown like a rat," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
AARON BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
TIM RUSSERT: Mr. President --
AARON BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
TIM RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President.
AMY GOODMAN: Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. Speaking on "Meet The Press" yesterday. This is Democracy Now!
Now Mr Broussard says she died Friday night, after suffering for 5 days without any rescue. All the evidence I have seen about St Rita's in St Bernard Parish indicates the people were drowned almost immediately as the parish was flooded very quickly.
In addition, it is quite apparent that parish officials told the owners of the nursing home to evacuate, and they did not. The parish officials (are you listening Mr Broussard?) could have enforced their evacuation orders and sent a sheriff over to make the idiots get their eldery residents out of harms way, but they did not. Instead a tearful Mr Broussard shows up on Meet the Press and blames the federal gov't for not saving this poor woman and her fellow residents, and then lies and says she did not drown till friday. It is amazing to me that the New Orleans crony gov't officials are not being roasted alive by the MSM, and I would start with Mr Broussard.
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the transcript of what he said..........
short answer: probably
Has anyone, ever, since the inception of the show, NOT lied on Meet the Press?
Lying is what they do La.
I'd like to know if he was lying when he made this statement:
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/WWLBLOG04.310f8438.html
10:12: A.M. - Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard: I'm not surprised at what the feds say, they're covering their butts. They're keeping the body counts down because they don't want to horrify the nation. It's worse than Iraq, worse than 9-11. They just don't want to know how many were murdered by bureaucracy.
10:10 A.M. - Broussard: I know what the body count is so far, but I won't horrify the nation.
He claims to have known last week what the body count was. However, last week the official body count could only have been 100-200 (a tragedy but hardly enough to horrify the nation since it was about a usual week-end of road deaths). So what did he mean exactly? Or was he just lying?
I'm not sticking up for these nursing home owners. Maybe they are the heartless bastards everyone is assuming. But where would you evacuate a bunch of nursing home patients to? What if some of them couldn't be transported in a bus, but needed an ambulance? Maybe they thought the people had a better chance of surviving by staying put than putting them on a bus to nowhere.
What happened is appalling. But I don't think this is as simple a situation as everyone is assuming.
I am not sticking up for the nursing home owners either, but are they any less guilty than Police Officers who left New Orleans and ran. Did they cause the deaths of any more people than the Police Officers who abandioned their charges? For that matter the Mayor ran off to Baton Rouge hinmself , what has he been charged with?
"But I don't think this is as simple a situation as everyone is assuming."
It sounds pretty simple to me. They left elderly people, who can't take care of themselves under the best of conditions, to fend for themselves in a category 4 hurricane.
Personally, there is no way I could have been the last employee out that door.
I really don't know in this situation. If they say they were waiting for a mandatory evacuation order, because they felt their patients were too frail to move, I'd check into that.
Maybe they are jerks. I've seen nursing home owners that drive rolls royces while their clients eat bologna sandwiches. But I've also worked in hospitals, and I can tell you evacuating a sick hospital population is a lottery. The odds are some would have died in the evacuation.
I tend to agree with you. Imagine you own a nursing home and an evacuation is ordered. You have an evacuation plan. The evacuation plan states you will call a private ambulance service to transport ill patients, the rest will be transported by van or bus. It's Sunday. You call your staff. They have all left town. You call the emergency numbers - they can't help. You call private transportation numbers, nobody answers. You stay at the nursing home and try to prepare best you can. Sandbag the walls. The storm passes, it seems you dodged the bullet. Suddenly the water starts rising, sketchy reports are coming in of levee failure. Everyone panics. Within 20 minutes water has risen waist deep. 10 minutes later it's neck deep. You get the patients you can on mattresses to float them. The more infirm ones are beyond your help. That's one possible scenario.
"I am not sticking up for the nursing home owners either, but are they any less guilty than Police Officers who left New Orleans and ran"
I understand the point you are trying to make but the nursing home is legally responsible for the personal care of it's residents. A cop's job is to enforce law and maintain order. Apples and oranges.
Broussard claims the mother called her son on tues, wed, and thursday, but the fact is she drowned tuesday at the latest. St Bernard's Parish was one of the most vulnerable to flooding, not because of levee failure, but because of strom surge. The nursing home operators knew that, they actuall told the residents if it flooded to hang on to the ceiling fans, and were later seen riding around town in a boat.
Democracy Now and Amy Goodman would make Stalin blush.
For those unaware, on the Dish Sat. there is a gaggle of extreme lefty channels in the 9415 to 9407 range. (the RFDTV Farm channel is lodged in betwixt)
Broadcasting from Dish must be dirt cheap, for most of the lefties have no commercials from any significant sponsors, if any at all. I would think this would be a great entry avenue for a true conservative channel, (hint, hint, Jim Rob) one thing for sure, such a outlet would have many fold the viewers of all the others combined.
Apples and Oranges --yes, But people died as the result of both.
IMO for what its worth. The Governor should be brought up for trial , her incompetence caused more than a few deaths.I expect the Dems to rally round her while they try to blame it all on Bush.
Is the Pope German?
"The Governor should be brought up for trial , her incompetence caused more than a few deaths.I expect the Dems to rally round her while they try to blame it all on Bush."
Agreed.
I was able to keep my parents out of nursing homes. I nursed them both during their final illnesses and I know the nursing home was in a difficult position. However, if they called me and stated their intention to wait out the storm and I had even the slightest doubt about the wisdom of that decision, then I would have arranged for the evacuation of my loved one myself.
A side note, my sister tells me that all of the patients in a NO mental health clinic/hospital were evacuated to a Memphis clinic/hospital before the storm by TAXIS as the clinic was unable to get buses or ambulances to make the trip. They put patients in the taxis 4 at a time and sent them to Memphis.
I bet many of those nursing home patients needed ambulance transportation and even then for some of them it would have been a lottery.
Just so I understand, where was Mr. Broussard when his mother needed him?
How was it that they were too worried for their charges' health to move them, but not so worried that they would stay with them through the storm?
Additionally, if you know a storm is coming and your infirm mother is in the storm's path, you go get her yourself. No way would I have left my mom to her own devices like that.
True. But if only one had survived the evacuation it would have been an improvement over what actually happened.
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