Posted on 09/11/2005 2:36:06 PM PDT by kenth
Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.
In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save.
Her heart-rending account has been corroborated by a hospital orderly and by local government officials. One emergency official, William 'Forest' McQueen, said: "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."
Euthanasia is illegal in Louisiana, and The Mail on Sunday is protecting the identities of the medical staff concerned to prevent them being made scapegoats for the events of last week.
Their families believe their confessions are an indictment of the appalling failure of American authorities to help those in desperate need after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, claiming thousands of lives and making 500,000 homeless.
'These people were going to die anyway'
The doctor said: "I didn't know if I was doing the right thing. But I did not have time. I had to make snap decisions, under the most appalling circumstances, and I did what I thought was right.
"I injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony. If the first dose was not enough, I gave a double dose. And at night I prayed to God to have mercy on my soul."
The doctor, who finally fled her hospital late last week in fear of being murdered by the armed looters, said: "This was not murder, this was compassion. They would have been dead within hours, if not days. We did not put people down. What we did was give comfort to the end.
"I had cancer patients who were in agony. In some cases the drugs may have speeded up the death process.
"We divided patients into three categories: those who were traumatised but medically fit enough to survive, those who needed urgent care, and the dying.
"People would find it impossible to understand the situation. I had to make life-or-death decisions in a split second.
"It came down to giving people the basic human right to die with dignity.
"There were patients with Do Not Resuscitate signs. Under normal circumstances, some could have lasted several days. But when the power went out, we had nothing.
"Some of the very sick became distressed. We tried to make them as comfortable as possible.
"The pharmacy was under lockdown because gangs of armed looters were roaming around looking for their fix. You have to understand these people were going to die anyway."
Mr McQueen, a utility manager for the town of Abita Springs, half an hour north of New Orleans, told relatives that patients had been 'put down', saying: "They injected them, but nurses stayed with them until they died."
Mr McQueen has been working closely with emergency teams and added: "They had to make unbearable decisions."
good point.
Next story: Katrina was a fake hurricane! It was really a space alien attack and GWBush is covering up the attack with the hurricane story.
The toxic water is a fake story to cover up the dead alien bodies!!!!
(/sarcasm off)
With all the $hi@ that went on down there this, if true was probably one of the most heroic acts commited. You know why the NOPD public relations guy killed himself? Cuz he came home to find his family raped and butchered after puting in an 18hour shift right after the storm. Would you rather that have happen to the patients?
"Careful, let's see if its true first. Something about this just doesn't ring true. I'd like to see it verified elsewhere before I buy it."
Thank you. I think MikeinIraq--a guy I respect a whole, whole lot--may be right, but let's let cooler heads prevail until we charge into the fray.
By the way, I like your tagline.
(I have not served. My tagline honors my son and my cousin.)
Some got debit cards but some got death.
It won't be long before the debit card recipients are deemed a burden on society and allowed to "peacefully pass on." They herded people into stadiums and now PD is confiscating guns. People can ridicule this at their own peril. It's the next step.
Lies, lies and damn lies!
Bull$#!t.
The "Mail" (a tabloid like "Weekly World News") just made this up.
I would rather they had been evacuated prior to the storm as they should have. I would rather security had been available to those hospitals to protect those patients. I would rather those hospitals had been equipped for an emergency with adequate generators and supplies.
You should keep in mind that claims the patients would have been murdered by thugs are just that, claims and possibly an excuse for what anyone would know, especially doctors, is illegal.
This is BS
Excuse me but I don't want some general accounatble to Hillary giving orders in my state. Just because Louisiana is corrupt shouldn't mean that every other every other state in the union should be treated as if they are populated by incompetents. My city has emergency plans developed that anticipate that outside help won't arrive for 48-72 hours. The police, military, and national guard are going house to house in New Orleans confiscating all guns regardless of whether they are legally owned. I don't want that in Texas. There are very serious reasons why the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was enacted. I don't want Washington DC to use the military to act as law enforcement agents if there is a functioning state government. We live in a republic not a dictatorship benevolent or otherwise.
Well none of that stuff happened in your first paragragh and not because of the doctors actions. I guess they could have just left like the caretakers of that nursing home, that make you feel better. Leaders are people that take action at a moments notice when there is no one to tell them what to do and no one to communicate with about their decisions. I understand your anger but it should not be directed at the docs.
That law is gonna happen, they've been reading our stuff. :-} Just kiddin' about that but it's gonna happen and when it does you're going to hear screaming from the left and right edges, which I count myself one of except I'll be cheering not screaming.
Count on it.
I have no doubt that there are circumstances where docs give a patient a nice dose of morphine out of compassion. I have all the doubt in the world that they would talk about it, especially to a reporter.
That story has been debunked as fraudulent along with the story of infants getting their throats slit in the Dome. The rape of the 7 year old is still up for debate. No one can confirm it happened.
I am G_D, I shall decide who lives or dies. If true, I don't find this disturbung, I find it ourageous.
Name me a state that can move folks in 48 hours, a massive number of folks. Granted that is more imperative in NO than elsewhere, but I don't think any public transportation was offered out of Miss either. The states just don't have the capacity or organization to do it, that quickly, that fast. Obviously this applies to hurricanes more than anything else. When the San Andreas gives near LA, we won't have any warning, so we will all be there to witness it all, up close and personal, if and when it happens.
I had heard that on either Glenn Beck or Rush, not sure wich.
When ideology gets in the way of common sense and reality, one has a problem. But then that is my motto about all things. :)
With all the $hi@ that went on down there this, if true was probably one of the most heroic acts commited. You know why the NOPD public relations guy killed himself? Cuz he came home to find his family raped and butchered after puting in an 18hour shift right after the storm. Would you rather that have happen to the patients?
Actually, I have to admit I have never read that paper as far as I know. Except for perhaps 1 or 2 of it's articles that IIRC have been posted on FR.
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