Doc: I 'got rid of' patient after Katrina

Associated Press ^ | August 29, 2009 | MARY FOSTER

[Free ThinkerNY]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's top prosecutor said Friday he will not reopen a probe into allegations of euthanasia at a hospital crippled by Hurricane Katrina, despite new statements from a doctor that he drugged a terminal patient to "get rid of her faster."

Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center desperately tried to care for and evacuate patients, making spot assessments of which ones might survive, he scribbled "pronounced dead at" on the patient's chart, intending to fill in time and other details later.

"I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor," Cook told ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative organization, in a report to be published Sunday in The New York Times Magazine.

[Cicero]

Premature Obamacare.

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

[Carley]

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

[Secret Agent Man]

Now we know where Obamacare gets its inspiration.

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

[Tennessee Nana]

How coldblooded evil...

[Merlinator]

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

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is Dr. Winkwink a Rat?

[Mamzelle]

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.

[Spok]

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

Why isn’t he Obama’s Surgeon General?

[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.

[HiTech RedNeck]

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

[HiTech RedNeck]

How does one avoid the slippery slope into euthanasia?

[normanpubbie]

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.

[Drew68]

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.

[HighlyOpinionated]

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.

[Chickensoup]

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

[HamiltonJay]

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.

[Norman Bates]

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

What euphemism are you using for this happening?

[Norman Bates]

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

Utilitarianism is a dark doctrine.