DOCTOR, NURSES ARRESTED FOR KATRINA MERCY KILLINGS

by Allen Johnson

July 18, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - US investigators have charged a doctor and two nurses with the murder of four patients in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, officials said.

An arrest warrant filed Monday charged that the three gave lethal doses of morphine and another drug to patients at Memorial Medical Center three days after the hurricane devastated New Orleans on August 29.

Doctor Anna Pou, 50, and nurses Cheri Landry, 49, and Laura Budo, 43, were charged with four counts of second-degree murder. They were released on bail to await formal arraignment.

The charges followed an investigation launched after rumors circulated that medical staff had euthanized patients whom they thought would not survive the harsh conditions that followed Katrina, including lack of food, drinking water and air conditioning.

Most of the patients and the family members who sheltered at Memorial Medical Center were evacuated but 45 bodies were found in the hospital.

The arrest warrant said: "On or about September 1, 2005 the offenders did commit the crime of principal to second degree murder, four counts, by intentionally killing patients at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans Louisiana by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulfate (morphine) and midazolam (versed)."

Louisiana attorney general Charles Foti was expected to give more details of the charges at a news conference Tuesday in the state capital Baton Rouge.

According to court documents obtained by National Public Radio in February, the lethal doses were administered to patients too sick to be evacuated.

Four hospital administrators heard of plans to give patients lethal doses, although none of the key witnesses said they knew who made the decision, according to the documents.

Attorneys for LifeCare, a long-term care facility which leased the floor where the dead patients were located, reported all of this to the Louisiana attorney general's office on September 14.

Most of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

Emergency generators in New Orleans hospitals quickly ran out of power and hospital staff used flashlights to tend to patients in the sweltering heat and stench of backed-up sewage.

Outside, the city descended into chaos and evacuations were stymied by reports of snipers shooting at medical helicopters.

According to statements given to one investigator, LifeCare's pharmacy director, the director of physical medicine and an assistant administrator said they were told that the evacuation plan for the seventh floor was to "not leave any living patients behind," and that "a lethal dose would be administered," NPR reported.

The decision to impose murder charges does not sufficiently address the issue of motive and the complex ethical questions underlying the situation, University of New Orleans criminologist Peter Scharf told AFP.

"This is a case that involves a clash possibly between moral duty and legal duty," he said.

"The issue that escapes discussion in the action of the attorney general is ... what are your duties in that kind of situation? Were these acts of conscience or acts of crime?"

While there has been much talk of the use of mercy killings in New Orleans hospitals and nursing homes as the city descended into anarchy, these are the first criminal charges to be filed.

The owners of a New Orleans nursing home where 34 people drowned in Katrina floodwaters were charged in September with homicide.

They had refused an offer by local authorities to move the patients and could also have moved them through a contract with a local ambulance company, but chose not to do so.