Article

2005-09-12 Home Front: Culture Wars

New Orleans Doctors Executed Critically Ill Patients

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Posted by Anonymoose 2005-09-12 10:18|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I agree, Anonymoose. And seeing how many of the worst atrocity stories aren't holding up under the light of day, I think we're seeing a new rash of urban legends (a la 9/11).

Posted by Xbalanke 2005-09-12 11:36|| 2005-09-12 11:36|| Front Page Top

#2 Had Howard Dean been in charge, of course, these people would have been humanely starved to death well before the crisis broke.

Posted by Mike 2005-09-12 11:50|| 2005-09-12 11:50|| Front Page Top

#3 Had Randall Robinson been in charge, these people would have been parted out and served to the hungry masses in the Super Dome.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-09-12 11:52|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-09-12 11:52|| Front Page Top

#4 In contrast...

Planning and Private Resources
At the Hospital Giant HCA
Made Rescue Operation Possible
By GAUTAM NAIK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
SeptemberÂ 7,Â 2005;Â PageÂ B1
As New Orleans emergency services struggled last week, giant hospital company HCA Inc. ran a rescue operation that airlifted some 200 patients and 1,200 staff members with 20 helicopters it managed to find and hire.

The Nashville, Tenn., company cobbled together a rescue for patients and staff at Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, a facility that it owns and that was badly hit by Hurricane Katrina. HCA flew in amateur ham-radio operators, including two from the Tallahassee Amateur Radio Club to prevent midair accidents.

"We used ham radios to create a makeshift air-traffic control system," says Ed Jones, a vice president of supply chain operations at HCA, noting that there wasn't a single chopper mishap.
HCA's evacuation of critically ill patients in the midst of poor flying conditions, no electricity, weak phone links and frequent sniper fire stands out among rescue operations in New Orleans in the aftermath of the hurricane. It throws into relief a corresponding failure of the public-rescue system: No such operation occurred across the street, at state-run Charity Hospital.
Indeed, HCA helped rescue up to 50 patients from Charity, many of whom were critically ill. Although HCA's own patients and employees were in peril, the company's ability to launch and execute a rescue shows how advance planning and private resources gave HCA and its patients a far different experience than those at Charity and other public hospitals.
"We were unable to get any governmental help in evacuating," says Norman McSwain, a professor of surgery at Tulane and trauma director at Charity, who worked at both hospitals throughout the crisis. Two evacuated patients, both from Charity, didn't make it.
The evacuation was the result of bold decisions by senior executives in the heat of the moment, coupled with some careful advance groundwork. Last fall, top brass from HCA and its hospitals met at the Hyatt Hotel in Orlando, Fla., for a "Hurricane Lessons Learned" meeting. Three hurricanes had roared through Florida over the previous months, and HCA, whose 190 hospitals and 91 outpatient surgery centers are concentrated in the Southeast, wanted to better protect its facilities.

Some key gaps HCA identified: Cellphones often fail, so alternative phone systems are needed. Roads become impassable, so emergency supplies have to be stored closer to hospitals. Backup generators are vital for cooling lab and diagnostic equipment, especially in summer, when hurricanes tend to strike.

In the following months, HCA provided its hospitals with satellite phones, hurricane shutters and additional backup generators. It also struck deals with local businesses -- refrigeration and water companies, diesel and gasoline retailers -- to provide supplies quickly in the event of an emergency. In areas where hurricanes were likely to strike, it also began to move food, medical supplies and other gear to warehouses closer to hospitals.

When Katrina struck last week on Monday, Tulane Hospital initially withstood the onslaught. But as some levees collapsed, water began to seep into the hospital. By seven the next morning, senior HCA executives had gathered in the company's Nashville boardroom, which would become their command-and-control center for the rest of the week.

The group realized they would need to lease about 20 helicopters for the evacuation of patients and staff, a move HCA had never before made on such a scale. Jack Bovender, Jr., the company's chairman and chief executive, didn't hesitate. "Get them," he said, according to Mr. Jones.

HCA employees leased a motley collection of helicopters, including a privately owned Blackhawk belonging to firefighters in Ocala, Fla., and a Russian-made machine from a land developer in Panama City, Fla. Soon after, HCA's makeshift fleet was ferrying critically ill patients from the parking lot at Tulane Hospital to other facilities.
It was tough going. Two Tulane patients each weighed more than 400 pounds, and one heart patient awaiting a transplant was strapped to 500 pounds of equipment. The elevators were dead, so medics carried patients up several flights of stairs. At night, the helicopter landing zone was illuminated by the headlights of cars parked in the garage.

Things were far worse at Charity Hospital, where patients and staff were subsisting on canned fruit cocktail and a dwindling supply of water. Eventually, Charity patients were ferried to Tulane in boats and evacuated by HCA helicopters. Dr. McSwain says he counted 254 evacuated patients, from both Charity and Tulane. An additional 1,400 people, including staff and patients' family members, were taken out. "I don't know where to lay the responsibility," says Dr. McSwain. "All I know is we were left without help. And we got our own help."

Posted by PsychoHillbilly 2005-09-12 13:51|| 2005-09-12 13:51|| Front Page Top

#5 45 Bodies Found at New Orleans Hospital
Sep 12 3:24 PM US/Eastern
NEW ORLEANS: Forty-five bodies have been found at a hospital that was abandoned more than a week ago after it was surrounded by floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, a state health official said Monday. The bodies were located Sunday at Memorial Medical Center, said Bob Johannesen, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Hospitals. Johannesen said the bodies were those of patients, but he had no other information. The Louisiana death toll rose to 279 on Monday, up from 197 on Sunday, Johannesen said.
On Sunday, reporters were kept at a distance from Memorial Medical by law enforcement officers as workers removed bodies from the hospital, situated in the city's Uptown section.
The 317-bed hospital, owned by TenetHealthcare Corp., remained closed Monday and was still partially surrounded by floodwaters.

Need to find out how many bodies the hospital had on hand before the hurricane. May just be the normal number of bodies awaiting pickup.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-09-12 15:48|| 2005-09-12 15:48|| Front Page Top

#6 I don't believe "Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients..." I call bullshit. All good Hospital train for and practice for disasters. Sounds like this training paid off. Notice the difference with the not so good hospitals.

Once again my fellow Amateur Radio operators come thorough when communications fail or become overloaded. People need to understand cellphones die in a disaster, don't plan on counting on them. Your support of Ham radio with the FCC is apprecated. There are powerful commercial interests who want our radio spectrum. These interests are not reliable in emergencies. Amatueur Radio operators are. We train for disasters, bring our own equipment (including power to run our equipment quite often) and are free.

Posted by Sock Puppet OÂ´ Doom 2005-09-12 16:20|| 2005-09-12 16:20|| Front Page Top

#7 I suspect this story is true, for the following reasons.

It only happened in a single hospital. Most of the administration had probably bugged out, leaving only a few staff doctors and interns.
Then, because of the MSM and the rumor mill, wild stories began circulating. Small events, like panicky people showing up at the entrances, windows being blown in, and intermittent power can really get things going into a full-blown panic. Hospital communications are generally good, so they were probably convinced that the whole building was going to come down or something after hearing hysterics coming over CNN.

Finally, one person opens the pharmacy, gets out the morphine and heads to the "gork" ward. The very last thing before everybody runs away in a panic. In hospitals, patients are very classed by condition, and non-communicative patients almost invariably get less care than do those who can communicate with the doctors and nurses. People are reduced to "live-or-die" dichotomies.

The same psychology exists on the battlefield when untrained soldiers see someone seriously wounded, and, assuming that their wound is fatal, execute them for what later turns out to be a serious, but non-threatening injury. It is the "There is nothing we can do for them now but put them out of their misery" syndrome.

And once the first patient was killed, it "broke the ice", and probably two or three individuals then went on a killing spree.

And this is why it seems reasonable. It was not a policy decision. It was a panic reaction from a single person, with "just following orders" complicity from one or two more. A total of three people may have then killed 20-40-60? helpless victims in under an hour.

When they are found out, they will go to prison.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-09-12 17:14|| 2005-09-12 17:14|| Front Page Top

#8 I think the euthanasia stories will turn out to be urban legends. Toxicology tests on the dead patients should show the drugs they had received recently.
SPOD - " All good Hospital train for and practice for disasters" Some of them train for some disasters. However, an interview with Charity's Dr. Norman McSwain was published in a 9/9/2005 story in the New York Times "Despite the historical threat of flooding in New Orleans, he said, there was never a plan to evacuate Charity, the nation's oldest continuously operated hospital. Nor at first did he expect one. 'Medical people don't evacuate,' he said. 'They stay and take care of people who
weren't smart enough to leave.'"
I was disappointed to read this. Dr. McSwain is world-known in his work as a trauma surgeon. How could Charity have had NO evacuation plan? Maybe once they decided to build a large hospital below sea level with its emergency generators also below sea level, they felt a flooding evacuation plan was unnecessary!

Posted by Crairong Omomotch6492 2005-09-12 18:15|| 2005-09-12 18:15|| Front Page Top

#9 In retrospect, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the staff was down in the ER, with just a few left in IC. The few with the morphine.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-09-12 19:54|| 2005-09-12 19:54|| Front Page Top

#10 Gators 'Moose. Morphine wasn't needed. Hundreds of little tiny aligaasdkljasdf;kkljasdf

Ummm.... Tom? Were you going to say thousands of little tiny aligators solved the problem? That's so wrong Tom. Get a grip.

Hatfield.

Posted by Shipman 2005-09-12 20:54|| 2005-09-12 20:54|| Front Page Top

#11 speaking of meds.....

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-09-12 21:21|| 2005-09-12 21:21|| Front Page Top

#12 I believe HCA is owned by the Frist family.

Posted by Abu al-MacSuirtain 2005-09-12 21:45|| 2005-09-12 21:45|| Front Page Top

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