Posted on 09/10/2005 10:07:46 PM PDT by Mount Athos
Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras.
"I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go," he said.
But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. "She told me, 'I have five nurses and a generator, and we're going to stay here,'" Bertucci said.
It turned out to be a tragic decision.
On Wednesday, nine days after the storm had passed, Bertucci watched as a dozen workers from a federal agency that specializes in handling mass casualties began the gruesome task of removing about 30 decomposing bodies from the still-flooded nursing home.
On Thursday, Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. announced he's launching an investigation into the deaths at the nursing home. "I want answers. I want to know why those people were trapped and were not evacuated," Foti said. The storm pounded through the parish's levees, unleashing raging floodwaters that knocked able-bodied men off their feet. At the single-story, privately-owned nursing home, residents confined to their beds or wheelchairs were quickly overwhelmed by the rapidly rising water, Bertucci said.
As the storm raged, neighbors and firefighters in boats rescued about 40 nurses and residents, carrying some -out on their mattresses. But rescuers could not save everyone. The body of an elderly woman wearing a housedress was found on a concrete patio near the front door. An elderly man's body was slumped over the back of a chair, a recovery worker said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Stupid is as stupid does. She could not imagine a flood that covered her building.
THanks,Clara Lou, but we geezers don't really find the word offensive.
fyi: I've read several articles that say the water rose to within a foot or two of the ceiling within 15-minutes. Neighbors living in the area knew the nursing home had not evacuated and came to their aid, saving as many residents as they could before they could no longer get into the building.
If you consider yourself a "geezer," and you don't mind, fine. My parents [deceased in their 80s] were not "old geezers." I object-- particularly in light of what happened to these "old geezers."
THat is your opinion Clara Lou, and this old geezer will defend with his life, your right to shout it from the roof tops. But in my humble opinion , these old folks were not harmed by the term geezer, as expressed by one our Freepers, but by the criminal incompentence and neglence of the owner of the Nursing Home.
Maybe I'm strange, but I don't care what I am called, unless it's "late for dinner".
For what it is worth I have clipped comments on this thread to highlight Broussard's lying.
The first truth of the story is that the owner of the nursing home refused to evacuate the patients, even after being offered two buses by the local coroner. The second truth of the story is that the patients died in the flood that inundated St Bernards Parish within hours of Katrina’s arrival and not on Friday as Broussard was crying about on TV.
Doomed nursing home had offer of bus transport
Posted by Mount Athos
Times-Picayune (New Orleans) ^ | Saturday, September 10, 2005 | Paul Rioux
Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras. "I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go," he said. But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. "She told me, 'I have five nurses and a generator, and we're going to stay here,'" Bertucci said. It turned out to be a tragic decision. On Wednesday,...
As Paul Harvey would say, “now here is the rest of the story” as reflected in the postings of FreeRepublic readers who have longer memories than what the politicians would like.
To: OKIEDOC I'm still wondering if this was the nursing home that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff was referring to when he talked about the person in the office whose mom phoned him from Monday night to Friday and then drowned Friday. It sounds like the all those in the nursing homes drowned the first night. It also sounds like St. Bernard parish tried to evacuate all the nursing homes before the storm. I haven't seen anywhere where the media has followed up on that story and I really feel kind of guilty even questioning it, but it still bothers me because I've always had the feeling that story was not all true and it really disgusts me if he didn't tell the truth about someone's death just to make something that was already a tragedy more dramatic.42 posted on 09/11/2005 3:42:22 AM EDT by Elyse
To: Elyse The President of Saint Bernard Parish was the one on Meet The Press who acted like a complete idiot crying and blaming Bush. He said that the FEMA people promised to come and get people in a nursing home for five days. However, they never came and all the people in the nursing home died. Now: What I want to know is why those people were not evacuated when the mandatory order was given. What responsibility did this so called leader have towards those who could not help themselves. To me his grieving caterwauling crying spell was nothing more than trying to deflect criticism away from his irresponsibility. As for Jefferson Parish it may be the same nursing home but this idiot definitely said it was Saint Bernard on MTP. Either way the sorry bastard was irresponsible. 45 posted on 09/11/2005 4:22:28 AM EDT by OKIEDOC
To: OKIEDOC Aaron Broussard is the president of Jefferson Parish. The nursing home was in St. Bernard parish. I'm not sure if the nursing home in this article is the same one Broussard was crying over in which the mother of his friend died, but I did read an article which stated that the nursing home referred to by Broussard was offered busses pre-storm and refused. 52 posted on 09/11/2005 7:25:51 AM EDT by alnick
To: Alnick The crying crook, Broussard, is under federal investigation for stealing funds. He was bawling about FEMA and the President not coming to help the nursing home victims evacuate when it was the owners' decision to turn down buses to get the elderly out. He is beyond despicable. I wish I were on his jury...
55 posted on 09/11/2005 7:38:51 AM EDT by kittymyrib
To: alnick From an MSNBC article This anger... On Sunday, America met 56-year-old Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard in an extraordinary display of raw emotion on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he talked about a colleague whose mother was trapped in a nursing home awaiting rescue. The man he was talking about is Thomas Rodrigue, who told “Dateline” that his 92-year-old mother was one of 32 elderly people found dead at the St. Rita’s nursing home.
To: jwh_Denver fyi: I've read several articles that say the water rose to within a foot or two of the ceiling within 15-minutes. Neighbors living in the area knew the nursing home had not evacuated and came to their aid, saving as many residents as they could before they could no longer get into the building. 63 posted on 09/11/2005 9:20:12 AM EDT by Nita Nupress
If the networks and cable channels were forced to identify persons they interview as "under indictment for ____" before questioning them or having them tell their story, maybe the audience would have a better idea of how much credibility to give the person's story.
How tragic - the elderly and the young are the most helpless of all.
She made a poor decision. OTH, I hate to think what would've happen to them in the superdome or the convention center. She would've been responsible for their safety and security there, too, wouldn't have she? I don't know if she could have insured that.
She could have done far better than that. The buses could have taken them 100-150 miles north west of NO to if nothing else a local high school gym which could easily be used as a temporary shelter. Single level Nursing Homes I've seen are not that well constructed. They patients would have faired better at a local motel of which in most cases at least uses concrete walls. Nursing homes are reluctant to evacuate patients unless they are forced to do so by local authorities. But think about their last hours.
Protocol in most states in event of life threatening weather is to place the residence out in the hall way. Can you imagine the terror they experienced hearing the storm pound their building for hours? This wasn't a pop up tornado for which this procedure was written but a full strength hurricane that was to last for hours.
Second point and most critical is all agencies namely NOAA advised evacuation well in advance of the hurricane. In the event of a hurricane any reasonable person knows such necessities as electricity and water services will not be functional. The generator the owner claimed to rely on was designed solely for short term emergencies meaning to get the lights back on within 10 seconds of power failure. About a third of the lights would have functioned and one outlet in each room had they survived. It was never designed or intended to be used as a long term {meaning possibly several days} solution. I have worked in facilities that to a great extent are set up to run in such cases but you don't count on it. Such things as poor design to cut corners on cost show up at those times.
Here is an example. I worked in a 50 acre complex with a 5 story skilled care facility, along with an assisted living and retirement community in other buildings on the campus. One night a bad storm hit. All went well at first the generator came on in about 8 seconds. 20 minutes into the power failure the engine tripped out on high temperature. This was a first in over 15 years. The cause? The storm knocked out two substations one for our facility the other for the local water utility. The original plans for the generator called for a radiator {self contained cooling system like your car} too cool the engine. They went as far as to have a hole in the building for it. But someone at the last minute made a poor choice to save money and instead simply had the engine cooled by utility water. When it failed so did our generator. But do you think the owners corrected this problem? That was about 12 years ago BTW. I bet you right now the engine is still dependent on utility water. It is unfortunate but far too many managers {Administrators} of nursing homes will do nothing unless forced to do so. We had an engineering plant that was supposed to be designed to run the facility for days if needed including heat via boilers. It failed in a simple summer storm.
Next point is patient oxygen requirements. 75 patients means likely about 10 were 02 dependent. There are two ways to do this. Either from a single compressed cylinder that last 6-24 hours or from a oxygen bank system meaning patient must be close to the wall inside the room to hook up the hose to the outlet. In short those trucks arrive about 2-3 times per week to most facilities with full tanks.
These patients would likely not have went to the Superdome. The man who called her likely had enough clout to get them to a secure medical facility well outside the city and if necessary outside the state had the owner gave the word.
Oh, the owners got out just fine, don't you worry.
I saw on Nancy Grace last night, the report that I think Anderson Cooper gave. He was in contact with a local reporter who knows the nursing home owners of St. Rita's, and saw them in Mississippi shopping days after the flooding.
He approached the owners and they asked him how he was doing, and he said to them, a lot better than the people in your nursing home.
For some reason, the owners still cannot be reached by authorities...
2 suspects charged with 34 counts of involuntary homicide/criminal negligence in these deaths.
Well when poor decisions causes the death of others who are under your care it doesn't matter if there aren't enough wardens. That just means we need to fire up ol' sparky more often.
There *are* plans statewide for evacuation. I know I live in the southwestern part of the state and when we had a mandatory evacuation for Lili, my father who was receiving home health care was going to be provided transportation to a safe shelter, here it was at the university.
His nurses did an outstanding job doing their duty by making sure the portable oxygen tanks were filled, he had enough of his special bandages and medication that was required for his wound care. My father was non ambulatory and on oxygen at the time.
My father did not need the transportation because I took him with me to stay with family up north. They followed the evacuation plan here. There is NO excuse for what has happened. I just hope that Blanko and Nagin get the same as the nursing home personnel.
This nursing home flooded with the storm surge, not the floods from the broken levees. That's why they needed to evacuate before the storm. At the time it was a CAT 5 storm. There's no excuse for this.
This is in a different parish with different authorities. This is NOT Nagin's problem. He gets a break here.
This is a different parish so this is NOT Nagin's problem. This is St. Bernard Parish and has a different person in authority.
This is a different parish so this is NOT Nagin's problem. This is St. Bernard Parish and has a different person in authority.
In this case it isn't the Mayor's fault. It's in a different jurisdiction. There are rules in place for those who operate nursing homes for evacuation and they failed to follow protocol.
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