Inclusion Daily Express -- Prosecutor: No Charges For Hospital Nurses Over Post-Katrina Deaths

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Prosecutor: No Charges For Hospital Nurses Over Post-Katrina Deaths
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 3, 2007

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA--Two New Orleans nurses will not face charges related to the deaths of hospital patients in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Assistant District Attorney Michael Morales said he has refused second-degree murder charges against Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, who worked at Memorial Medical Center during and after the August 2005 storm.

Along with Dr. Anna Maria Pou, the pair had been accused of injecting lethal doses of drugs into four patients, who ranged in age from 61 to 90.

Within days of the storm, stories began circulating in British tabloids that some medical staff gave overdoses to several patients that were in critical condition in the hospital, which had dwindling medical supplies and no power for air conditioning or equipment.

Soon after the hospital was evacuated, Louisiana Attorney General George Foti ordered subpoenas for dozens of hospital staff to testify as to what they witnessed during and after the hurricane. But the investigation stalled as investigators said most tissue samples collected from dead patients had likely deteriorated to the point where the presence of drugs could not be accurately detected.

Foti later said new analyses of tissue samples led a forensic pathologist to conclude that the four patients died from a combination of morphine and a central nervous system depressant known commercially as Versed. The medications were not prescribed for any of the patients, he said.

Foti added that the youngest patient was believed to have been "aware, conscious and alert" at the time he was lethally injected.

The investigation against Budo and Landry was dropped under an agreement that included their testimony before a grand jury.

Charges still remain for Dr. Pou. If convicted, she could face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Related:
"People With Disabilities Among Hardest Hit By Hurricanes Katrina & Rita" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/katrina.htm

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