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Doc: I 'got rid of' patient after Katrina
Associated Press ^ | August 29, 2009 | MARY FOSTER

Posted on 08/28/2009 2:57:32 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

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1 posted on 08/28/2009 2:57:32 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Premature Obamacare.

Give that man one of the vacant jobs in Obama’s health administration!


2 posted on 08/28/2009 2:58:56 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

From the Governor to the Mayor, they are the ones who ought to be prosecuted.


3 posted on 08/28/2009 3:02:28 PM PDT by Carley (WHEN YOU HONOR THE DISHONORABLE YOU SHOW YOUR OWN TRUE COLORS)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Now we know where Obamacare gets its inspiration.

Never let a good crisis go to waste. Right Barry?


4 posted on 08/28/2009 3:02:32 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

How coldblooded evil...


5 posted on 08/28/2009 3:03:13 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Cicero

He should be Ozero’s health czar. He out-Mengeles the compassionate Dr Rahm.


6 posted on 08/28/2009 3:04:13 PM PDT by Merlinator (Teddy in Arlington?... WTF were all the Massachusetts landfills full?)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Is Dr. Winkwink a Rat?


7 posted on 08/28/2009 3:04:22 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Barack Obama is a political suicide bomber and the Rats are political arsonists.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Sigh. "Get rid of"--did that mean offing the patient, or making it possible for the patient to be evacuated?

There are a lot of doctors across the nation watching how the Katrina doctors are being treated. Overheard in a lounge, "Hell if I stick around this place when the Bird Flu or the Swine Flu overwhelm the hospital, if this is how I can expect to be treated."

They notice that no one comes after the docs who simply left.

8 posted on 08/28/2009 3:07:13 PM PDT by Mamzelle (Who is Kenneth Gladney?)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

“a doctor that he drugged a terminal patient to “get rid of her faster.”

Why isn’t he Obama’s Surgeon General?


9 posted on 08/28/2009 3:14:16 PM PDT by Spok
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To: Free ThinkerNY

In a last ditch, last resort situation with people one can not save and who will die a long slow horrible death with no hope of help — we are not in a position to judge that doctor or anyone in similar dire situations.


10 posted on 08/28/2009 3:15:02 PM PDT by Aroostook25
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To: Mamzelle

Well, if there were a surge of “morphine cures” to Bird or Swine Flu, dern tootin this would draw some askance looks.


11 posted on 08/28/2009 3:18:02 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Barack Obama is a political suicide bomber and the Rats are political arsonists.)
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To: Aroostook25

How does one avoid the slippery slope into euthanasia?


12 posted on 08/28/2009 3:18:58 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Barack Obama is a political suicide bomber and the Rats are political arsonists.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Obviously, some of the posters did not get past the headline.

The patient in question was terminally ill with uterine cancer and kidney failure. Dr. Cook ordered an increase in the morphine drip and wrote "pronounced dead at" on the patient's records, which strongly suggests that she was very close to death. Quoting Cook from the article:

..."It's always given with the intent of providing ease. The nagging side effect is that it shortens life, but you're talking about people who are terminally ill already. They are not going to get better."

The prior Louisiana AG, Charles Foti, had presented evidence to a grand jury but they declined to indict. Here's what the current New Orleans DA is quoted as saying,

"If new evidence comes forward we would consider it," Cannizzaro (New Orleans DA) said. "But the crux of the matter is intent. To prove murder we must be able to prove intent."

Euthanasia is an execrable practice, but this case doesn't appear to fit the definition.
13 posted on 08/28/2009 3:38:15 PM PDT by normanpubbie
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To: Aroostook25
we are not in a position to judge that doctor or anyone in similar dire situations.

But we will.

What happened in that hospital was a perfect example of everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong and things that couldn't possibly go wrong still went wrong. And very quickly.

But, hey, I watched Katrina from my TV half the country away and I've never worked in a hospital so I'll just sit here and post about how evil this doctor was and make pithy comments about Obama's health care plans.

14 posted on 08/28/2009 3:42:36 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: Free ThinkerNY

It’s obviously bothering this doctor and he’s unable to get beyond it.

I’d say he is probably a more compassionate and dedicated doctor now because this incident lays heavy on his mind.

I think he needs help to forgive himself and for the community to let him know that sometimes you just do what you have to do . . . given the situation, wouldn’t having her die with drugs be better than her dying outside the hospital while being moved to another location? She didn’t have hope of getting better and he had to make one of those “doctor life and death decisions” without having many alternatives.

I think he chose the rightly. And I would say that if the patient were a close relative. I definitely would not blame him.


15 posted on 08/28/2009 4:00:50 PM PDT by HighlyOpinionated (At Thermopylae, 1 Million Persians lost 20 Thousand yet failed to disarm 300 Spartans. Molon Labe!)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: Aroostook25

In a last ditch, last resort situation with people one can not save and who will die a long slow horrible death with no hope of help — we are not in a position to judge that doctor or anyone in similar dire situations.

Amen. there is triage in mortal situations


17 posted on 08/28/2009 5:24:16 PM PDT by Chickensoup (minestra di pollo)
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To: Mamzelle

I agree, anyone sitting around second guessing what the people on the ground were doing in this situation are just fools.

Civilization is gone, help ain’t coming, limited resources, and you are resonsible for hundreds if not more patients with dwindling supplies and anarchy all around you.

Nope, not going to play arm chair quarterback.

The people who should be in jail over Katrina all hold or held government positions, not the doctors and nurses in the hospitals on the ground.


18 posted on 08/28/2009 5:31:10 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: normanpubbie

“Euthanasia is an execrable practice, but this case doesn’t appear to fit the definition.”

What euphemism are you using for this happening?


19 posted on 08/28/2009 6:36:38 PM PDT by Norman Bates
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To: Drew68

“I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor”

Utilitarianism is a dark doctrine.


20 posted on 08/28/2009 6:40:33 PM PDT by Norman Bates
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