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We had to kill our patients

E

epr64

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Well, I'm not comfortable with this one..

On one hand, I think that keeping someone alive at all costs when there is no chance of recovery and a lot of suffering is useless and cruel. On the other hand, I think there must be a strong will expressed by the patient before actively helping him/her to die.

Now, these were extraodrinary times.

Did they take the good option? Just a question..

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.
Click to expand...

The full article is here.

CU
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They were competent experts who determined that these folks were about to kick it one way or the other. If I knew someone was going to die soon no matter what, I'd be tempted to prevent any undo suffering. The other option the Drs had wasn't any better it seems.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
They were competent experts who determined that these folks were about to kick it one way or the other. If I knew someone was going to die soon no matter what, I'd be tempted to prevent any undo suffering. The other option the Drs had wasn't any better it seems.
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Well, yes and no. Yes, it's ugly to let someone suffer. But some people don't want to die, whatever the pain.

I still stand on my ground.. IF the patient says strongly and repeatedly he/she wants to die, or that he clearly stated before that he didn't want to be kept alive at all costs, then OK. It's his/her will. Otherwise.. I don't think anyone has the right to take one life. Even highly trained pros. Now, you are definitely right in the fact that the other option they had wasn't that great. As I said, I feel uneasy with this one.

Once again, just my opinion.

CU
Y
 
What a nightmare situation for those poor patients and their doctors and nurses. I certainly don't feel able to make any negative judgement on their actions. Would I do the same in that situation? I don't know!

Real question is - How the hell, in the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation, did it ever come to that?
 
Excuse me if I think any of you gullible but I am reading your words. THIS NEVER HAPPENED. I have talked to two nurses from NO and another I know in Mobile and you will not believe their horror at this story. You don't find this story on our news do you? Don't you think this would be front page stuff?

This is a false story and to even believe it is so demeaning to yourselves. I also spoke with a pediatrics emergency room nurse in Austin who has been tending some of the DNR's and cancer patients from Louisiana and she is as appalled as I am. This is a story made up out of "whole cloth". To think any nurse would stand by while injections are given and watch while death ensues is such a low opinion of these wonderful people that you simply have to believe the falsity of this story.

Nurses are trained and take an oath to preserve life at all cost except when death is natural under the Do Not Resusitate (DNR) chosen by the patient. How could anyone believe this story.

For those who do? I wonder when the President or Governor of Louisiana or the Mayor of New Orleans will have to answer for this. This story and those who think our health care workers would do ANYTHING like this only deserve one thing; shame. :duel :cool:
 
Any independent confirmation on this 'story'? The reports I've seen stated that critically ill patients were evacuated to other hospitals outside of the storm-damaged areas.
 
Well, a VERY quick search on google came out with 2 brit papaers reporting the stuff:

The Daily Mail

and The Mirror

Through other search engines, it gives another one back:

The daily telegraph


This of course doesn't mean it's true. It's just bizarre.

CU
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Simon W. Moon said:
They were competent experts who determined that these folks were about to kick it one way or the other. If I knew someone was going to die soon no matter what, I'd be tempted to prevent any undo suffering. The other option the Drs had wasn't any better it seems.
Click to expand...
And I'm afraid this is the "other option"..

The authorities in New Orleans have removed 45 bodies from a city hospital badly hit by flooding.

The dead were geriatric patients thought to have expired in the heat after Hurricane Katrina knocked out the hospital's power supply.

Hospital officials have given grim details of the final hours of those who died in Memorial Medical Center, which was abandoned to floodwaters more than a week ago.

Despite the desperate efforts of staff and family members to keep them cool, it is thought that many vulnerable patients simply could not cope with the stifling conditions in the damaged medical centre.
Click to expand...

Link is here.

Yep, must have been hell for those in charge in NO's hospitals. So awfull.

Y
 
Simon W. Moon said:
They were competent experts who determined that these folks were about to kick it one way or the other. If I knew someone was going to die soon no matter what, I'd be tempted to prevent any undo suffering. The other option the Drs had wasn't any better it seems.
Click to expand...

The state and local hurricane plans called for all those patients to be evacuated to safety and the mayor had primary responsibility for that backed by the governor. Who bears the blame for what happened?
 
Naughty Nurse said:
What a nightmare situation for those poor patients and their doctors and nurses. I certainly don't feel able to make any negative judgement on their actions. Would I do the same in that situation? I don't know!

Real question is - How the hell, in the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation, did it ever come to that?
Click to expand...

The local and state hurricane plans called for all those patients to be evactuated out. The mayor had primary responsibiltiy to get those people to safety backed by the governor. Who is to blame for what happened to those poor patients? Let me guess George Bush.
 
mwi said:
Any independent confirmation on this 'story'? The reports I've seen stated that critically ill patients were evacuated to other hospitals outside of the storm-damaged areas.
Click to expand...

The LA AG has just let out indictments against one home for leaving 40 patients to die.
 
Stinger said:
The state and local hurricane plans called for all those patients to be evacuated to safety and the mayor had primary responsibility for that backed by the governor. Who bears the blame for what happened?
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I'm not talking 'bout who bears the blame, although you're certainly right on that.

The question was more 'bout the morals involved.. once again, if this is true.

CU
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Leaving them DOES NOT EQUAL injecting them with poison to kill them.

Leaving those elderly people to fend for themselves is horrible. I'm sure that the LA AG will deal properly with the culprits and punish them accordingly.
 
If anyone knows anything about the doctors and nurses in this country they know this story is false. Why even any British rag would print something like this without confirmation on the scene is just an example of yellow journalism. Doesn't anyone look for professionalism from their media anymore? Don't people think about what they read? Or do people just read something and if it fits their agenda they run with it?

Our media; their media; all media is biased one way or another or within a single printed or broadcast piece. Remember what is important to any media outlet here or over there; scandal, sex or anything to drool over. I note that the noted critic of President Bush, Keith Olberman of MSNBC's "Countdown" did a story on this last night. Did he come up with the man that the story cites as their source with all the resources of NBC News behind him? No. Still, great story, might even trick the brain dead viewer.

I do hope yello journalism is the worst thing I can say about these so called British "news"papers. In regard to this story/non-story, they deserve the worst. :duel :cool:
 
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