Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (92 page)

 
97
Psychiatrists have profiled
: Kaplan, Robert M., “The Clinicide Phenomenon: An Exploration of Medical Murder,”
Australian Psychiatry
, 15, 4 (2007): 299–304.

 
98
a Dutch court
: See, for example: Sheldon, Tony, “Andries Postma,”
BMJ
334, 7588 (February 10, 2007): 320;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1796690/
.

 
99
one pharmacy chain
: Multipharma chain. Personal communication, Dr. Eric Dachy, May 5, 2013.

 
100
not always followed
: The study is referred to in Pereira, J., “Legalizing Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide: The Illusion of Safeguards and Controls,”
Current Oncology
, 18, 2 (April 2011): e38–e45.

 
101
Groningen Protocol
: Verhagen, Eduard and Pieter J. J. Sauer, “The Groningen Protocol—Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns,”
NEJM
352 (2005): 959–962.

102
“life has been completed”
: Peters, Marleen, “Completed Life: What Are We Talking About? Questions and Answers,” trans. Maarten Pennink, Amsterdam, NVVE/Right to Die Netherlands, February 2010.

103
The debate in the United States
: See, for example, Cahill, Lisa Sowle, “Richard A. McCormick, S.J.’s ‘To Save or Let Die: The Dilemma of Modern Medicine’ ” in Walter, Jennifer K. and Eran P. Klein, eds.,
The Story of Bioethics
(Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003).

104
Karen Ann Quinlan
: See, for example, Lepore, Jill, “The Politics of Death: From Abortion to Health Care—How the Hysterical Style Overtook the National Debate,”
The New Yorker
(November 30, 2009).

105
Clarence Herbert case
: See, for example, Lo, Bernard, “The Death of Clarence Herbert: Withdrawing Care Is Not Murder,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
, no. 101 (1984): 248–251.

106
Ohio legislature
: “An Act Entitled an Act Concerning Administration of Drugs, Etc., to Mortally Wounded and Diseased Persons,”
The St. Louis Medical Review
, 54 (January 27, 1906). Retrieved from Google Books.

107
Studies in
: Summarized in Gostin, Lawrence, “Drawing a Line Between Killing and Letting Die,”
The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
, 21 (Spring 1993).

108
“N.O. Coroner”
: Meitrodt, Jeffrey, “N.O. Coroner Finds No Evidence of Homicide,”
Times-Picayune
, February 1, 2007, A1.

109
When a
New York Times
reporter
: Nossiter, Adam and Shaila Dewan, “New Orleans Coroner Sees No Evidence Yet for Indictments,”
New York Times
, February 2, 2007.

110
Karch had staked
: See, for example, Karch, Steven B., “Is Post-Mortem Toxicology Quackery?”
Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine
10 (2003): 197–198; and Drummer, Olaf, A. Robert W. Forrest, Bruce Goldberger, and Steven B. Karch, “Forensic Science in the Dock: Postmortem Measurements of Drug Concentration in Blood Have Little Meaning,”
BMJ
329 (September 18, 2004): 636–7.

111
well-known textbook
: Karch, Steven B. and Olaf Drummer.
Karch’s Pathology of Drug Abuse
(Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 5th ed. available August 2013).

112
“These people were given”
: Dr. Michael Baden interview (January 22, 2008).

113
He put Karch’s theory
: Wecht and Kaufmann,
A Question of Murder
, 278–9; Dr. Cyril Wecht interviews with author (2008).

114
reported on the selection
: Filosa, Gwen, “Memorial Evidence to Be Reviewed; Murder of 4 Patients After Katrina Alleged,”
Times-Picayune
, February 16, 2007.

115
“Dr. Pou’s heroism”
: “AAO-HNS Statement on the Continuing Prosecution of Dr. Anna Pou,” American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, February 24, 2007;
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/527596
.

116
“Very alone”
and
“What’s Father”
: Interview with Dr. Anna Pou (July 23, 2008). See also the website of the National Seelos Shrine & The Seelos Center, New Orleans:
www.seelos.org
.

117
76 percent
: Interview with Richard Simmons (May 2, 2007) and letter from Richard Simmons to author, August 14, 2009.

118
told a reporter
: Berry, Jason, “Charles Foti and the Memorial Three,”
Gambit Weekly
, October 31, 2006.

119
“frivolous lawsuits”
: Richard Simmons, comment during author’s interview with Dr. Anna Pou (July 23, 2008)
“as Third World”
: Dr. Anna Pou comments at Houston disaster-preparedness seminar, May 19, 2007.

120
On May 19
: “Friends of Anna” disaster-preparedness seminar and dinner/fund-raiser held in Houston, Texas, attended by author as described in Notes to Chapter 3.

121
flying at night
: Interviews were conducted with ten USCG and USCG Auxiliary members involved in coordinating or conducting nighttime operations at Memorial. The USCG, in response to a FOIA request, also produced a spreadsheet of flight record “bluesheets,” which show that many post-Katrina flight operations took place after dark. There is ample publicly available documentation of nighttime search and rescue operations undertaken at considerable risk after Katrina. See, for example, “The U.S. Coast Guard and Hurricane Katrina: Historical Index”;
http://www.uscg.mil/history/katrina/katrinaindex.asp
.

122
Pou’s former chairman
: Dr. Byron Bailey.

123
World Medical Association
: “World Medical Association Statement on Medical Ethics in the Event of Disasters,” adopted September 1994 and revised October 2006;
http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/d7/
.

124
collaborated with the attorney
: Cobb, James Jr.
Flood of Lies
:
The St. Rita’s Nursing Home Tragedy
(Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2013), p. 227, and interview with James Cobb Jr. (May 4, 2013).

125
“nefarious conspiracy”
: The allegation was made in court documents, as described in Rioux, Paul, “Judge Refuses to Remove Foti From St. Rita’s Prosecution,”
Times-Picayune
, August 1, 2007;
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/judge_refuses_to_remove_foti_f.html
.

126
hold the Army Corps of Engineers
: Cobb,
Flood of Lies
(p. 226) and interview with James Cobb Jr. (July 2013). Cobb no longer had Foti’s filing available, and the author could not independently verify its content before publication.

127
plot media strategy
: Interview with Richard Simmons (May 2, 2007).

128
an ongoing case
: See note for page 363 re: the Danziger Bridge shootings.

129
chanting “Heroes!”
: Maggi, Laura and Brendan McCarthy, “Cheers, Jeers Greet Jail-Bound Officers in Danziger Bridge Shooting,”
Times-Picayune
, January 3, 2007;
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2007/01/cheers_jeers_greet_jail-bound.html
.

130
On June 13, 2007
: Supreme Court of Louisiana No. 2007-OK-1197 in Re: Special Investigation;
http://www.lasc.org/opinions/2007/07OK1197.pfc.dip.pdf
; “Application for Supervisory Writs Filed on Behalf of Applicants Witness #1, Witness #2, and Witness #3” (undated); “Motion and Order to Compel Testimony” and “Order,” State of Louisiana in Re Special Investigation, Criminal District Court, Parish of Orleans, Special Grand Jury, May 17, 2007; Maggi, Laura, “Immunity Offered to Memorial Nurses to Testify,”
Times-Picayune
, June 19, 2007;
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/06/immunity_offered_to_memorial_n.html
.

131
“It just goes under a different name”
: Interview with Karen Wynn (December 7, 2008).

132
published the first issue
:
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
.

133
a minority of American physicians
: The AMA did not respond to a request for current membership statistics. Authors have suggested that in recent years, only around 15 percent of practicing US physicians were members. See, for example, Roger Collier, “American Medical Association Membership Woes Continue,”
CMAJ
, 183, 11, E713–E714, August 9, 2011;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3153537/
.

134
Rick Simmons appeared
: Transcript of remarks, provided by Richard Simmons. See also, Sorrel, Amy Lynn, “AMA Meeting: Doctors Who Give Disaster Aid Seek Liability Shield,”
American Medical News
(July 16, 2007).

135
delegates voted to create
: D-435.976 “Protection From Liability Arising from Care Rendered to Patients During Officially Declared Disasters”;
http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/PolicyFinder/policyfiles/DIR/D-435.976.HTM
.

136
Minyard liked […] later describe it
: This section is based on roughly a dozen interviews conducted with Dr. Minyard (2007–2010) and interviews with the forensic colleagues to whom he turned for advice on his findings. Minyard at one point told the author that he decided that four of the nine deaths the grand jury was considering were homicides, and his statement was included in “Deadly Choices” in 2009. However, copies of drafts of a letter to district attorney Jordan, dated June and July of 2007 and prepared on behalf of attorney general Foti, state that “Dr. Minyard still maintains that homicide is the manner of death only in connection with the deaths of two patients, Emmett Everett and Rose Savoie. To date, his determination of the manner of death of the other seven patients who died on the 7th floor on 9/1/05 remain ‘undetermined.’ ” It is unclear if Minyard had already testified before the grand jury at the point the letter was written, or if he did so later and changed two of the “undetermined” cases to “homicide.” In interviews, Dr. Minyard resisted describing exactly what he told the grand jury, claiming that it was secret. However, Minyard had a duty as coroner to classify the deaths as part of autopsy reports, which are considered public records under Louisiana law. When other members of the media sought the autopsy reports of the Katrina dead, Minyard, essentially setting his own law, at first refused to release them. The
Times-Picayune
and, separately, reporter A. C. Thompson, successfully sued to obtain them. However, the copies Minyard provided left empty spaces next to “classification of death” (see, for example, Maggi, Laura, “Autopsy Reports Aren’t Complete: Deaths at Memorial Weren’t Classified,”
Times-Picayune
, October 23, 2007). Likewise, family members of the Memorial and LifeCare deceased are entitled to death certificates. Those who have requested them in recent years have found them similarly incomplete, in some cases still marked “pending investigation.” Rose Savoie’s grandson, Doug, repeatedly requested a copy of her death certificate on behalf of his family. He was told in 2010—five years after Katrina—that the coroner hadn’t finished it. Savoie sent letters to the coroner asking that this be done, but it was not. He requested help from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. But the latest copy of the certificate sent to the Savoie family, in 2010, notes nothing at all in terms of the cause of his grandmother’s death and is stamped “under investigation.” As of August 2013, the Savoie family still had not received a completed death certificate.

137
forensic all-stars
: Wecht and Kaufmann,
A Question of Murder
, p. 286.

138
to support her
: Dr. John Thiele died at his home on December 31, 2010. For years during the course of his treatment for metastatic cancer, he continued to practice medicine, making patient rounds even while wearing his chemotherapy pack.

139
social columnist
: Nolan, Nell, “Common Concerns Celebrated,”
Times-Picayune
, July 24, 2007.

140
published an op-ed
: Foti, Charles, “Katrina Was No Excuse: No Circumstances Can Justify the Taking of Innocent Human Lives,”
USA Today
, July 27, 2007, 10A;
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070727/oppose27.art.htm
.

141
popular national lecturer
: See for example, Conde, Crystal, “Ethics in Crisis Care: Dr. Anna Pou Addresses Texas Medical Association’s 2012 General Session,”
Louisiana Medical News
(July 31, 2012; first published in
Texas Medicine
);
http://www.louisianamedicalnews.com/ethics-in-crisis-care-dr-anna-pou-addresses-texas-medical-association-s-2012-general-session-cms-2120
. “I felt like I was on the
Titanic,”
she told the Texas Medical Association in 2012, where she received a standing ovation. She has referred to what happened at Memorial and her subsequent arrest as a “personal tragedy.” In arrangements with meeting organizers, Pou has often prevented journalists from attending her lectures about Katrina.
FEMA called us
: Anna Pou, “Legal and Ethical Considerations in Crisis Care,” lecture at the California Hospital Association’s Disaster Planning for California Hospitals Conference, September 23, 2010, Sacramento, California.