|
New Orleans: To Louisiana's attorney general, the doctor and two nurses arrested this past week are murderers. But many in the local medical community are outraged at the arrests, saying the three caregivers are heroes who braved Hurricane Katrina to care for their patients. Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were accused of being principals to second-degree murder in the deaths of four patients at Memorial Medical Centre three days after Katrina hit. Pou, Landry and Budo are accused of killing four patients, ages 61 to 90, with morphine and a powerful sedative called Versed. Dr. Ben deBoisblanc, director of critical care at Charity Hospital, said he and others are angry at the accusations. Heroes
"This doctor and these nurses were heroes. They stayed behind of their own volition to care for desperately ill people. They had an opportunity to leave and chose not to," he said. Attorneys for the trio say they are innocent. DeBoisblanc and others fear the accusations may discourage other health professionals. "If you think that going after physicians and nurses while hardened criminals are ruling this town, if you think that's an image that's going to bring people back, you've got to be kidding yourself," deBoisblanc said. Pou, Landry and Budo were the first medical professionals charged in a monthslong criminal investigation into whether many of New Orleans' sick and elderly were abandoned or euthanised in the days after the storm.
|
