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
Whiney, snivelling lawyer bump.
So why do you trust the Daily Mail on this issue?
“My reading of posts to that effect for years on this forum for one thing. My other life experiences for another.
Am I not allowed to form opinions based on my life experiences and widespread reading?”
I have VERY personal experience with this. You can form your opinion, but my personal experience tells me it’s very wrong.
Well, that’s lame — really lame — but at least it’s to my face. Now maybe you can work on having a substantive response.
Boy, for a lawyer, you sure suck at reading comprehension. That’s not what i wrote. You are sure typical of your trade, completely untrustworthy to post the truth. You just keep on proving me right, you fit right in with the rett of your type.
When do you plan to post something of value, and not your incessant lies, distortions and strawman arguments? Liars like you suck.
I’m still curious as to how you know more than the grand jurors who sat through all the evidence. Could you enlighten us?
Yep, juries never make mistakes, just ask OJ.
My brother is an attorney who specializes in elder law issues and I can assure you that there is a huge difference between a professionally prepared advance medical directive (living will) and a boilerplate version that the hospitals supply.
Must you be so offensive? If you despise FR so much, why don’t you just leave again.
“I don’t know what the Daily Mail is, but presumably it’s one of the linked articles. I take it that you do not find them to be trustworthy. Could you tell me why not?”
The Daily Mail was the sole source in those links. It quoted an anonymous doctor saying that he/she euthanized some patients. It’s a UK paper that I think more of as a tabloid. According to Lifenet, which I don’t triust a whole lot either, it’s a very pro-euthanasia paper.
“Yep, juries never make mistakes, just ask OJ.”
Grand juries indict ham sandwiches. This one didn’t indict. I ask again, do you have some sort of secret information that the grand jury didn’t hear? Or do you just believe that doctors are in the business of murdering people?
Many questions arise from the deaths of these patients--has an autopsy been done to determine cause of death? I doubt it, given the circumstances during and after that time. They were probably too decomposed. Were they terminal, anyway, and needed to be made comfortable? Were any of them on "do not resusitate" orders?
It seems to me that these doses were probably "possibly lethal" doses, given to alleviate the suffering of combined physical conditions and the horrible hospital conditions.
I pray that if I am ever suffering unbearably, I have a Dr. Pou who is willing to advance me a higher than regulation dosage to help with the pain. It is very possible the Dr. should get a humanitarian award for staying and doind all she could, instead of bugging out when her shift was over and seeing to her own getaway.
vaudine
O.K., thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.