New Orleans Hospital Staff Discussed Mercy Killings

by Carrie Kahn

All Things Considered, February 16, 2006 · Soon after Hurricane Katrina struck, the first unconfirmed reports surfaced of "mercy killings" -- euthanasia of patients -- at New Orleans hospitals. For months, the Louisiana attorney general has been investigating these charges. That investigation has centered on the actions of doctors and nurses at the city's Memorial Medical Center.

NPR has reviewed secret court documents related to the investigation and not yet released to the public. The documents reveal chilling details about events at Memorial hospital in the chaotic days following the storm, including hospital administrators who saw a doctor filling syringes with painkillers and heard plans to give patients lethal doses. The witnesses also heard staff discussing the agonizing decision to end patients' lives.

After Katrina struck the city, conditions at New Orleans' Memorial hospital were horrendous. The hospital was surrounded by water, power was out and back-up generators failed. Temperatures inside the hospital quickly soared past 100 degrees and patients were in distress.

But it was on the seventh floor of the hospital were the situation was most dire. Memorial Medical Center leased the floor to LifeCare Hospitals, a separate long-term patient care facility.