Sources: New Orleans nurses offered immunity in deaths

[whopis01]

Source: CNN

Two nurses accused in the post-Katrina deaths of four patients at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center have been offered immunity to testify before a special grand jury, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.

Sources also told CNN the grand jury has been told as many as nine patients may have died after being administered what Louisiana's attorney general called a "lethal cocktail" of medications by hospital staff.

The investigation determined that the four patients -- ages 63, 68, 91 and 93 -- were given a "lethal cocktail" of morphine and midazolam hydrochloride, both central nervous system depressants, Foti said.

None of the patients had been prescribed the drugs by their caregivers and none of the accused treated the four before the injections, Foti said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/19/nola.hospital/index.html

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Unbelieveable. These people are murderers and they are being given immunity.

[terisan]

1. No, they are accused. Has Bush been indicted yet for preventing assistance to NO ?

[pitohui]

2. they are not murderers

they are being given immunity so they can hang the doctor, who is not a murderer either, but the prosecutors can't admit they were wrong so somebody has to hang

duke d.a. case, same song, second verse, same as the first

prosecutors who wanna be in the news by inventing crimes and victims need to pay some serious penalties in my view

it is incredible that these women are still being harassed, next time we have a disaster, we already have a huge shortage of doctors in new orleans area and when there's another storm, none of them will be hanging around to get second-guessed by assholes

[rainbow4321]

11. The nursing agency I work for puts out a survey

each year at the beginning of hurricane season..asking if there were to be a disaster somewhere would we be willing to travel to that area to work in the hospitals. Once you agree, you are obligated to go when the disaster strikes.
I remember thinking at the time when word broke about the hospital staff/patients being trapped that there was NO way in hell that anyone would offer their services anymore...why go, work during the crisis, have to survive the conditions that they did, and THEN run the risk of being charged w/ criminal activity/murder by people second guessing your decisions?? No way in hell.

[uppityperson]

3. They are not murderers. Here is more info/links

They are accused. Whatever happened, it was a hellacious situation with little information or help. As a nurse, I've been following these people closely and they are not murderers. There is so much else

Edited to add other links.
Article
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/06/immunity_offered_to_memorial_n.html

Link to help support the nurses with much information if you want to learn more.
http://www.memorialnursessupportfund.com/index.html

Many of us worked side by side with Cheri and Lori at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans during the chaotic aftermath of Katrina under desperate, war zone-like conditions. In the deadly, sweltering heat, we desperately tried to provide medical care and comfort to gravely ill patients with inadequate food, running water, oxygen, or basic medical supplies.

Many of us were well aware that our homes and possessions had been swept away in the storm. And too many had the terrible burden of knowing their loved ones were missing, some presumed dead. As professionals, we had to put these thoughts aside and ignore great personal sorrow in order to work as a team to help others. We witnessed first hand Cheri and Lori’s efforts to treat, comfort, and evacuate others. They were dedicated and courageous in the face of great adversity. In light of these great personal sacrifices, we are outraged and heartbroken over the media circus surrounding their recent arrest. Tragically, the rescue helicopters and boats that finally arrived were too few in number and far too late to save some of our patients – and THAT is the crime that happened in our hospital....(more@link)

[OldschoolDem]

4. Accidents are not murders in the difficult times of need

The Nurses should be punished by the hospital and apologize to the family and that should be it.

[Lars39]

12. Punishment shouldn't even enter into the equation.

The people in those hospitals had been abandoned, with no effort to get them out.

[LostinVA]

16. Why in the world should they be punished?

They should get the opposite, imo.

[uppityperson]

5. another link

http://www.supportdrpou.com/

As Hurricane Katrina raged through New Orleans, shattering windows, ripping roofs off homes and homes off foundations, breaking levees and flooding the city, government at all levels failed to meet the urgent human needs of the city's most helpless: patients-hundreds of them, stranded in local hospitals without lights, air conditioning, adequate food, water and technology, and without any means of escape from the hell that arose around them.

For five desperate days, medical professionals, doctors, nurses, and others risked their own lives to staff area hospitals and to treat and save acutely ill and critical patients who could not save themselves. Tragically, with an absence of government assistance, scores of stranded patients suffered the cruelest of deaths. In a final ironic twist to the horrific events of Hurricane Katrina, three of those heroines of the storm stand charged with second degree murder by Attorney General Charles Foti and a state government that failed to provide adequate resources to prevent unnecessary deaths at Memorial Hospital....(much more at link, including info, testimonials, etc, some from AMA)

[Heidi]

6. Kick.

:kick:

[NeoConsSuck]

7. New Orleans nurses offered immunity in deaths

Source: CNN.COM

Two nurses accused in the post-Katrina deaths of four patients at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center have been offered immunity to testify before a special grand jury, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.

Sources also told CNN the grand jury has been told as many as nine patients may have died after being administered what Louisiana's attorney general called a "lethal cocktail" of medications by hospital staff.

Family members said staffers used the drugs to kill patients so caregivers could flee appalling conditions inside the hospital after the storm.

<snip>
Sources have told CNN that the killings were allegedly carried out to hasten evacuation as medical equipment failed, temperatures soared, food dwindled and looters converged on nearby buildings.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/19/nola.hospital/index.html

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My question: While equipment failed, temperatures soared, food dwindled and looters converged on nearby buildings, where was that white house motherfuc*ing scumbag? And why is he not being charged? Or for that matter, Michael Brown?

On 911, the Crawford Coward spent the day flying safely in Air Force One, while the rest of the country was terrified. During the New Orleans hurricanes, he was eating cake and playing guitar with John McCain.

[hlthe2b]

8. just a forewarning...

This, posted earlier elicited lots of newcomers intent on declaring these health workers as monstrous murderers. To them, I would say the true murderers were Bush* et al, Chertoff, Brownie and the whole lot.

[LostinVA]

9. No, they aren't murderers, nor were the doctors who stayed on duty

This was shown almost two years ago after this broke. They murdered no one. They did, however, ease patients already dying, into death. There is a huge difference.

[AlienGirl]

18. I imagine myself sick, unable to take care of myself, in a hospital without power...

I imagine lying for days in my own sweat and shit because *there is nowhere else to put me*, and I imagine what happens when they can't run things like the electronic morphine drips or the delivery system for inhalent anaesthetic, and I imagine what happens if I get an infection from the sewage-filled water that has risen everywhere, and there is no telling how long it will be before any help comes.

And, imagining that, I hope if I am ever in that situation, someone is brave enough to end me quickly instead of waiting for dehydration, sepsis, or starvation.

Tucker

[youngdem]

10. YOU ARE WRONG....THEY ARE NOT MURDERERS!!!!

You might want to learn something from a source other than the Corporate News Network before you go spouting off about what you clearly know NOTHING about.

These women are political pawns, being kicked around by Repukes in order to remove focus from Bushco's failure to evacuate these patients after more than five days in an unpowered hospital. These 'murderers' were hand-ventilating these critical patients for DAYS in an unairconditioned, darkened hospital, while the doctors and nurses hydrated themselves with IV fluids!

After the firefighters came and left without taking any patients, they made the HUMANE decision to put some of these patients out of their misery, since there was NOTHING more these doctors and nurses could do to save them or provide them comfort.

This is nothing more than typical 'compassionate' conservatives blaming those that actually do the real work in a catastrophe for the failings of an uncaring Repuke Administration.

I live here in New Orleans and was born and raised in Southern Louisiana. Stick to what you have a clue on, please. You have embarrassed yourself and slandered three good women who were caring for people when many lesser people would have walked off to save their own family and their own skin.

[Javaman]

13. I smell a potential freep. but I'm not quite sure. I will have to keep an I on this one. nt

[LostinVA]

15. Yup

[Pastiche423]

17. There is nothing "potential" about it

The stench is undeniable.

[mainer]

14. a sure sign the prosecutors smell defeat and are desperate

I bet the nurses tell the prosecution where to go.