Posted on 07/25/2007 4:17:23 PM PDT by wagglebee
NEW ORLEANS, July 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A New Orleans grand jury decided Tuesday not to indict Dr. Anna Pou, a doctor who was accused of murdering four patients during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Pou had been charged by Louisiana's attorney general on 10 counts, including second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
Earlier this year two nurses who had admitted to administering lethal doses of medication to patients at the same medical center were offered immunity in return for their testimony before the grand jury.
Pou and the others have consistently claimed that while they did administer potentially lethal doses of medication to some patients at the Memorial Medical Center, they did so not to end the patients' lives, but to relieve unbearable pain.
Witnesses have dramatized the conditions at the medical center during the days following hurricane Katrina as being akin to a war zone. During that time whole sections of New Orleans were submerged in water, the city was without electricity, and the heat and humidity were stifling. Over 30 patients at the Memorial Medical Center died before the center was able to be evacuated some days later, some of them allegedly as a consequence of high doses of pain killers administered by Pou and the nurses.
"All of us need to remember the magnitude of human suffering that occurred in the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so we can be assured that this never happens again and that no health care professional should ever be falsely accused in a rush to judgment," said Dr. Pou during a press conference following the announcement that she would not be indicted.
"Today's events are not a triumph, but a moment of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the storm and a tribute to all of those who stayed at their posts and served people most in need."
Pou told the press that upon hearing the news that the case against her would not go forward she was, "at home with my husband and I fell to my knees and thanked God."
Attorney-General Charles Foti, who charged Pou and the two nurses, has consistently declared his belief that the doctor and two nurses illegally killed their patients. "This was not euthanasia," Foti was quoted as saying when the details of the case first emerged. "This was homicide."
Foti said in announcing that he was filing charges against Pou and the nurses that he and his team of investigators, "spent almost 10 ½ months investigation and, after all of this, can only come to the conclusion that this crime has been committed."
The attorney general responded to the jury's recent decision saying, "I regret their decision."
"The dedicated employees of the attorney general's office have done their duty as required by federal and state law, and I am very proud of our efforts on behalf of the victims and their families," he said.
While Pou has garnered some significant public support, with some even praising her as a "hero" for her actions following Katrina, others have pointed out that cases like these are a slippery slope for the medical profession.
When the story about the actions of some medical personnel in New Orleans first broke in 2005, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Executive Director Alex Schadenberg had responded, saying, "Not to mitigate the extreme nature of the circumstances, but the euthanasia cases in New Orleans unveils the very problem with legalizing euthanasia: Who makes the decision?"
"Hippocrates recognized the fact that physicians are capable of being healers and they are capable of being killers," Schadenberg explained. "In order to protect patients, Hippocrates declared that a physician must 'do no harm' to their patients. Euthanasia in New Orleans proves to the world how easy it is for people who consider euthanasia as an option, to go from being healers to killers."
While Pou has escaped indictment on criminal charges, however, civil suits have been taken out against her by the families of three of the patients who she was accused of murdering.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Editorial: The Cruelest Irony of All - When "Those Who Heal You Will Kill You"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07071010.html
New Orleans Doctors Kill Patients Rather Than Leave Them to Looters, Then Flee
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05091205.html
Doctor Charged in Katrina Deaths Denies Committing Murder, Euthanasia
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06092502.html
Doctor and Two Nurses Arrested For Hurricane Katrina "Euthanasia" Nightmare
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06071806.html
Court Documents: Hospital Gave Lethal Injections to Patients During Hurricane Katrina
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071204.html
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Sure sounds like a few cases of negligent homicide to this country lawyer.
Congressman Billybob
You are right sir, but there will be a “higher court” that will hear these cases although that doesn’t do much for us in the here and now on this earth...
Absolutely! As soon as we find that perfect world. But today, the crazies, the corrupt, and the inept run half the show.
Kevorkian must be very jealous of her.
Yes, it’s called MURDER.
Sure, if you discount their statements and decide their guilt from your comfy easy chair.
It comes down to intent, if they intended to end the patients life do you believe that it is murder?
Did you miss their statements?
Without help coming to evacuate, no or limited electric, and VERY sick needy patients, what would have been the alternative? This doctor stayed at the hospital, which means leaving their own families, to administer aid to the patients under their care. It is easy to look at this situation from the comfort of your air conditioned home and judge the doctor but....what would you have done?
I would not have killed them.
Are you claiming that people accused of murder don't lie?
It’s unbelievable.
I have an image burned into my brain:
It was so obvious to me, a humble housewife - OK I was a military officer and also I grew up (pratically) on the LIE - however - There was that horrible Mayor Nagin with flunkies at his side saying “this is the big one” to the TV Press, instead of doing his job - and then . . . forward to the helicoptor camera shot of the highway - absolutely empty on one side; three lanes or so - noone driving on them (noone going into town)and standing-still traffic outbound three lanes, instead of NOPD or that dopey mayor closing everything off in favor of evacuees. Doh!
The ineptitude is criminal and obvious and he gets reelected not to mention he remains unaccountable.
Sigh and HUFF.
Don’t get me started.
That is beside the point, obviously the grand jury believed them. However, you still haven’t answered my question, if they INTENDED to cause death, do you consider that murder?
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