Thank you for your intelligent comments.
If I may, as a local New Orleanian, get this off my chest re. this horrific event.
First- the sentiment locally is PRO the doctor. That I cannot understand. People are DEAD, and there has been almost NO comment on them or their grieving families.
This was a hospital- where people go to get HELP, not help to die. These patients were part of a critical care unit. The doctor in question was NOT their physician, she was an ear, nose and throat specialist-hardly familiar with elderly in critical condition.
There has been talk that a phonecall was overheard ORDERING that ‘no one be left behind alive’ from that critical unit when the hospital was evacuated. Haven’t heard too much about that.
This is what I KNOW about conditions in hospitals post-Katrina. My nephew was a paramedic stationed at University for a time. Triage was being performed- which means the ‘viable’ patients were getting the most of what was avaliable, those deemed unlikely to survive( mostly the elderly) were regrettably ‘disposable’.
That sounds just as ugly as it was. A REAL bias against the sick elderly DOES exist in the medical community. I have had first hand experience with it. Past a certain age( even in normal conditions) the elderly are seen as less valuable and worthy of medical care.
If I ran into that attitude( at more than one local hospital) before the storm, I can well believe the elderly in this incident were considered disposable.
I think Pou intentionally committed euthanasia, and in this state that is HOMICIDE.I don’t care how much stress they were under, killing patients shouldn’t have been the result. And wasn’t every patient suffering? Curious it was only the very old who had 4 times the level of painkiller and sedatives in their blood.
Of course she walked- just exactly like the common, everyday thug who has killed on the street but isn’t prosecuted for lack of evidence and witnesses. BUT- she didn’t only get off for those reasons- political blackmail was a big factor.
Over and over we’ve heard that charging her- even SUSPECTING her- in this case would lead to a ‘backlash’ from the medical community. They would refuse to stay in future storms if their actions would be questioned.
Now-tell me that isn’t saying ‘we want carte-blanche regarding anything we do’ re. patients in a post-storm situation? That’s blackmail- that’s pressure. And it worked.
What no one is addressing is - do we want to set a precedent anywhere in this country where medical personnel are above the law? The old saying is that doctors bury their mistakes. In this case the medical community is saying ‘hands off or we walk’.
Do we want doctors who ASSUME their unconscious patients PREFER death and then give it to them?
Do we want doctors who claim the right to decide when someone has ‘suffered enough’? What does that mean to long-term care, cancer patients, to anyone who hasn’t specifically asked to be medically euthanized when their condition deteriorates to a certain point?
Didn’t Kevorkian do jail time for helping people who ASKED him to help them die? Now we have doctors wanting the right to ‘mercifully’ euthanize suffering people without their consent- and this one got away with it!
This is about giving the medical profession the right to ASSUME for you, and I , and our families when you should be put out of your misery. It sets a frightening precedent.
The oath is ‘Do No Harm’. Not ‘Kill for Pity’.
DNR means don’t save me if I’m dying. Don’t give me oxygen if I can’t breathe- not put a pillow over my face to hurry me along.
If too much suffering gave this doctor the right to euthanize helpless people( and does anyone expect anything other than denial?), then how much of your pain is too much will be at the discretion of a doctor. Some might think 5 days is too much , some might think 1 is too much; and as long as they ‘care’ and do it for ‘humane’ reasons they can give you a lethal cocktail?
I don’t want to give anyone that power. And I don’t want anyone to ASSUME I’m better off dead if I can’t speak for myself.
In this New Orleanian’s opinion, Pou and the nurses are guilty of intentional homicide. God will deal with them.