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."
This story was just reported on Fox News..
I find it very plausible. What do you think happened to patients who had to be moved? Or those who could not be moved with addicts attacking and looking for a fix?
What exactly, is hard to believe? Have you been paying attention?
Waiting to see how true this one is.....
they evac the Hospital & supposedly spread to the winds w/ the dead left behind
How in hell is a (foreign) reporter gonna come upon this story ?
&/or Corroborate it w/ folks in scattered locations
...when supposedly they're aren't any communications
I seriously doubt that it even happened. Some Brit sitting in an office somewhere hammered this together like any other ficitional short story.
OMG! This is so sad. While waiting for Katrina these people should have been airlifted to other hospitals out of harms way.
What was the Mayor thinking? And to think there are some who want to legalize drugs use. Looting would become a way of life for those needing a fix. God help us.
particularly since they use a guy in Abita Springs as a source for what happened in New Orleans. I googled this guy...according to a BBC story I gooogled, he has a British wife. Presumably that's how he came to be quoted in a British tabloid. I surmise that they just called whoever they could get a phone # for, and he was one of them. According to the BBC story, he had been clearing downed trees in Abita Springs ever since the hurricane. Evidently that makes him an authority about emergency medical services in New Orleans.
There is no evidence the McQueen is an emergency official, the only hit on that name comes from the BBC here British families fear for US relatives
And according to the story the guy is a gardener"
Part of his job there is to maintain the grounds of an old plantation house, she said.
I find this hard to believe. However, if it is true, I would not fault these doctors.
Its a UK tabloid for crying out loud
Totally Bogus.
You had better learn to dig into every factoid we get and help drill it down.
Thanks for the link JoJo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1482464/posts
Mercy Killing in NO?
Self | 9-11-05 | Self
Posted on 09/11/2005 5:32:14 PM EDT by Mike Darancette
I was just dozing off and thought I heard (o FOX) that doctors in NOLA were giving patients lethal doses of morphine?
I wonder if this is but another rumor being passed on in the press.
When you are on your own death bed, remember your post!!!
-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-
OK, here ya go. #1, the families were notified pretty quick, weren't they - how's that possible? #2, Where were said family members while their ill loved one was facing a category 5 heading his or her way? They could've arranged for transport well ahead of time. And #3, if an unnamed doctor killed my Granny without asking me first, the doctor would would suffer my wrath, not "American authorities".
What a stinking crock of you-know-what.
I agree with you..but for a diffeent reason..Those who might have done it..and I am not abotu to criticize their motives, would NOT be blabbing about it to the press..
More than one William McQueen in Abita Springs??? Utility manager same as 'maintain the grounds'?
BBC 9/6/05 re: Missing Brits
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4220656.stm
Mother-of-two Suzanne McQueen, of Maidstone, Kent, is waiting for news of her American husband (William) Forest McQueen.
He has been working in his home country since 1997, and lives and works with his brother in the Abita Springs area, north of Lake Pontchartrain, which is north of New Orleans.
The couple married in the UK in 1991, and Suzanne said she and her daughters - aged 11 and 13 - were planning to move to the US to join her husband as soon as was possible.
Mr McQueen's wife has had no news from his friends and family
Part of his job there is to maintain the grounds of an old plantation house, she said.
"I phoned the morning the hurricane hit, and his brother said Forest hadn't been home for the last 24 hours because he'd been on shift clearing up trees and lines from all the wind damage that came before the hurricane. I haven't heard anything since.
"I've been going through a list of phone numbers for friends and family in the area and can't get through to anyone.
"Up until yesterday or the day before I thought everything would be okay and that they hadn't been in touch because the power was down. But I've since seen more information about the amount of wind destruction there.
"I am getting very concerned. I am trying to contact people from work so the girls don't know how worried I am."
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