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Dr. Anna Pou was on duty at Memorial Medical Center when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29, 2005. In the aftermath of the storm, after the levees failed and despite rising water and no electricity, she and other doctors and nurses attempted to continue caring for patients. On Wednesday, August 31, United States Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt reassured the public that 2,500 patients would be evacuated from hospitals in Orleans Parish, although it wasn't clear at first where they would be moved. On September 11, 45 bodies were recovered from Memorial Medical Center, New Orleans, about five of whom had died before the disaster (originally thought to be eleven). Out of an estimated 215 bodies found in nursing homes and hospitals in New Orleans, Memorial had the largest number. In 2006, a Louisiana judge found probable cause to order the arrest of Pou and two nurses for second degree murder in the deaths of several of the patients, following a nearly year-long investigation by the office of Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. However, a grand jury in Orleans Parish refused to indict Pou on any of the counts. Eventually, the charges were expunged and the State of Louisiana paid Pou's legal fees.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?&i=212483 )〕 Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, Foti's successor, said, "This is a prosecution that should never have been brought" forward. In 2008, Caldwell testified before the Louisiana Supreme Court in support of the position taken by lawyers for Pou and other doctors and nurses from Memorial, who were fighting to keep the state's investigative records in the case sealed from public view. He said, "the case against Dr. Pou is probably over," but that new information could lead to a renewed investigation, so the files should remain secret.〔 The following year, Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro testified in the same case that "human beings were killed as a result of actions by doctors" at Memorial after Hurricane Katrina. However he explained he did not plan to prosecute anyone. "Whether or not there was a homicide and whether or not there is a case that can be brought are different matters."〔 ==During Katrina== Pou, an associate professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the LSU Health Sciences Center, was at Memorial Medical Center〔 The Memorial Medical Center has since changed ownership, and is now called the Ochsner Baptist Medical Center.〕 from before Katrina's landfall on Monday, August 29 until Thursday, September 1. By Wednesday, the hospital was surrounded by floodwaters, without sanitation, running out of food, experiencing indoor temperatures up to ,〔 〕 and had no electricity. The staff decided to evacuate the hospital. Patients on upper floors had to be carried down the stairs, and those evacuated by helicopter had to be carried up more stairs to the helipad on a separate building; several patients died while being moved. By Friday, about 2,000 patients, families and staff had been evacuated "under incredibly difficult circumstances".〔 The seventh floor at Memorial was leased to LifeCare Hospitals of New Orleans. LifeCare provides long-term acute care for severely ill patients, aiming to improve their health to the point that they no longer need hospital care.〔 Many of LifeCare's patients at Memorial were especially affected by the loss of electric power; seven were on ventilators. One patient in particular, Emmett Everett, was alert and in the hospital awaiting surgery to relieve a chronic bowel obstruction, a condition not acutely life-threatening. He had fed himself breakfast that morning and asked the staff, "Are we ready to rock and roll?". One of his nurses later told investigators he had said, "Cindy, don't let them leave me behind." According to witnesses speaking to ''The New York Times'', Pou was alleged to have administered a lethal cocktail of drugs to Everett with the intent of ending his life. Everett was a paraplegic and weighed approximately 380 pounds; for these reasons, according to staff who participated in the discussion, Pou allegedly didn't think the staff could reasonably assist him in the evacuation.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Memorial Medical Center and Hurricane Katrina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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