DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients

[Guest guest]

B

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:50:13 -0400

[GranniesAgainstGeorge] Aussie news - euthanasia in NOLA

 

 

 

 

 

This is making headlines across Europe and AUS; first I have heard of

it but probably not the last. -- b

 

 

 

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,16566858-5001022,00.html

 

Patients put down

September 12, 2005

DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically

ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated.

 

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.

 

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 doctors spoke only on

condition on anonymity.

 

Their families believe their confessions are an indictment of the

appalling failure of US authorities to help those in desperate need

after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, claiming thousands of lives

and making 500,000 homeless.

 

" I didn't know if I was doing the right thing, " the doctor said.

 

" 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, denied her actions were murder.

 

" This was not murder, this was compassion. They would have been dead

within hours, if not days, " she said.

 

" 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 the hospital's 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, who worked closely with emergency teams, added: " They had

to make unbearable decisions. "

 

 

 

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