No Charges for Hurricane Katrina Doctor Accused of Murdering Patients

LifeSiteNews ^ | 7/25/07 | John Jalsevac

[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

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Do you really think that this doctor was administering “pain management”?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That would be a Fact,Sir,,,The amount of drugs found in the bodies was not a lethal dose,,,The Grand Jury heard this and came back with the “No Bill”,,,The amount of drugs per
body weight/condition of these poor folks did not constitute
a fatal dose by the guidelines given in the PDR/etc.,,,
I posted back up-thread what/who most folks support...
It Ain’t Foti...

[tillacum]

You may be right, but I’ve heard, as soon as he heard Katrina was going to hit NO, he bought a house in Dallas and moved his family there. The family safely enconsed in Dallas he move himself and his secretary to the top floor of the hilton, where he waited out the hurricane and directed the evacuation of those left in the lowlands to get themselves to higher ground.

[Iwo Jima]

So what? Have you ever killed a patient because those thing had to be done? Can you honestly say that because what had to be done was difficult or unprecedented that the proper response is to kill the patients?

Generator not working? Kill the patients! Shesh!

Nothing that happened was so unsurmountable that you would even consider killing the patients. And from what we know, she didn't even try. She was in contact with the outside world. Some patients were evacuated. These could have been, too, just with more effort.

What I know that maybe you don't is what the doctor and her defenders have said going back to when this first came out as her justification for giving lethal doses of drugs to her patients. And it was that she had stayed there as long as she could, she needed to go home, and couldn't leave them there alive. So she killed them.

If that is the case, can you honestly say that you approve of that?

[P-40]

I wonder....if you need a new car you could sort of bump a tree due to lack of sleep. :)

[Iwo Jima]

Now you're just being purposefully obtuse. I had no idea that patients needed rescuing and that their doctor was going to kill them.

Many qualified people were on the scene who could and would have rescues them if they had only known what the doctor knew.

[hophead]

Look at the posts by Iwo Jima and you will see where he is coming from.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=57987

[P-40]

And some people have said that the government blew up the levees to kill the black people. Can we enter that into your evidence pool also?

[floozy22]

What is this, Daily Kos? Because some of us disagree with you and IJ we are “psychos”. I guess I was wrong to believe that this site was a proper place for “intelligent” discourse. Name calling for legitimate difference of opinion is the MO of the leftards, not this site.

At times it seems to resemble DK or DU - in spirit, at least. You've obviously missed the umpteens of threads that mention a politician who is running for president and whose initials are RG: No intelligent discourse and plenty of name-calling. There are certain things we don't mention here because it riles the "true conservatives," you know, the ones that God personally keeps in touch with. And anyone who posts here suggesting that our political adversaries might be entitled to their opinions (even though we disagree with them), is not greeted warmly.

[Iwo Jima]

You are the first person to say that it was a non-lethal dose. Here are the questions that I have been asking all night but no one will answer:

Did they administer lethal doses of drugs or not? Yes or no?

Did these lethal doses of drugs cause the patients' death? Yes or no?

Were these lethal doses of drugs given in order to cause or hasten death? Yes or no?

Was there a lack of consent from the patients to use lethal doses of drugs? Yes or no? (I suppose that some were unable to consent due to their condition.)

If the answer to these questions is "yes," then I call it murder, not matter what justification the doctor has about how horrible the conditions were.

But if they were non-lethal does, then why did all of the patients die?

[Mamzelle]

re: Generator not working? Kill the patients! Shesh!)))

Argh. Is this thickheadedness an imposture?

1) Just because patients die, does not mean murder has been committed.

2) The conditions were beyond ghastly, and it is reasonable to believe that the personnel's performance suffered from their lack of resources. When you can't breathe from the heat, can't see in the darkness, are frightened--why is it so hard to believe that you also administer drugs poorly?

3) Why, when there is so much evidence here for ACCIDENT in the midst of chaos, do you WANT to believe that murder has been done? And you truly seem to WANT to believe this, with no specific evidence.

4) Innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt--until some real evidence presents itself, which you don't appear to have--it looks like "benefit of a doubt" will rule out.

[Iwo Jima]

You can’t possibly be that stupid.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Now you’re just being purposefully obtuse. I had no idea that patients needed rescuing and that their doctor was going to kill them.

Many qualified people were on the scene who could and would have rescues them if they had only known what the doctor knew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BS,,,BS,,,BS,,,BS,,,BS,,,BS,,,THEY COULD NOT GET OUT !!!!!

[P-40]

I had no idea that patients needed rescuing....

It was a story for several days. The best one was the Broward County one where the mama called her son for days begging for rescue but no one came. Of course that one turned out to be total BS....but you get the point. Brother Jesse could have picked those people up as his convoy of buses evacuated students from Xavier....but I forget they weren't black.

[Iwo Jima]

If this doctor administered lethal doses of narcotics in order to kill the patients, do you condone that?

[P-40]

Based on the quality of your standard for admission to your pool of evidence, it fits. And you should also note that Elvis had a hand in it also...so sue Graceland.

[Iwo Jima]

That ALL the patients died argues against this being an accidental overdose.

Just answer me this: if the doctor intentionally gave lethal doses to the patients in order to kill them, do you condone that?

[Iwo Jima]

Why not?

[Mamzelle]

OF COURSE NOT. Who here is condoning mass murder? WHO?

Based on my experience and what I've read, these personnel were knee-deep in aligators and did the best they could with what they had.

[P-40]

And how many died again?

[Iwo Jima]

Well, then, we have less disagreement than I thought. I think that she did that. You apparently think that she unintentionally gave lethal doses due to the stress of the situation.

If I thought that was what happened I would not be critical of the doctor. But that's not the way that the situation was been presented in the news, and by her and her supporters.

What I find so objectionable is the position (which you apparently do not share) that she intentionally gave lethal doses and that was the right thing to do -- that it was justified or even laudatory. THAT'S what angers me.