My experience with DNR orders is exclusively in New Jersey, where I was an EMT on an emergency (volunteer) corps, and I also worked for a transport service. If anything, we were taught to err on the side of caution with a DNR since there could be a mistake, or there could be malice.
It also took a few years before emergency departments adapted to them. They often ignored them at first, and there was no real penalty for that, but they did change their ways. It happened while I was still an EMT. Even with the DNR, many families just couldn’t let go, or couldn’t watch their loved one die when the moment came. There were cases where the patients were known to the emergency crews, but how can you refuse to do CPR when the family is crying and looking at you to do something?
It’s a sensitive issue, with a lot of nuances, and Dr. Pou and her invention of “reverse triage” isn’t helping it any. They probably won’t get the truth out in the civil case, either. They can still file another indictment, so they can’t be compelled to testify due to self incrimination. And that’s a shame. I think Dr. Pou panicked and lost control of her senses. I think she killed nine people, and she will never suffer a penalty for it.
Your post makes a lot of sense.
I think that Dr. Pou worked like a Trojan to get the hospital's patients taken care of in incredibly difficult, nearly impossible circumstances. Then, just when she thought that she could see the end of the tunnel, she learned about these 9 LifeCare patients on the long term care floor whose doctors had abandoned them. She was given flawed information that there weren't going to be any more evacuations (maybe because it had been thought that all the patients were out).
She knew that she couldn't leave while any patients were alive. So.......
I can be VERY sympathetic and even supportive of what she did until the point where she made the decision to give lethal injections to these 9 patients. That act alone erases all of her previous good works and intentions. You just can't do that.