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Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Dr. Pou

As TalkLeft noted here, Dr. Anna Pou is a skilled physician who performed heroically during Hurricane Katrina, risking her own life to assist patients who were stranded at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center. She was rewarded with an arrest and a murder investigation as prosecutors claimed she had deliberately ended the lives of patients "who could not easily be evacuated from the hospital."

Dr. Pou has always denied the accusation. She had the support of the Louisiana State Medical Society, and apparently of a judge who tired of the seemingly endless investigation. Fortunately for Dr. Pou, the ordeal is over. A grand jury refused to indict her.

The AMA, expressing its pleasure with that decision, said:

"The AMA continues to be very concerned about criminalizing decisions about patient care, especially those made during the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, when medical personnel and supplies are severely compromised."

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    Well Yeah (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by squeaky on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 04:12:32 PM EST
    With all the horrible management problems her indictment seemed absurd. Clearly she was a scapegoat.

    At least some people have sense (none / 0) (#2)
    by Nowonmai on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:30:19 PM EST
    These sick and dying people, abandoned by those who were to care for them, and no rescue in sight. The one person who stayed and took care of them was used as a target to deflect the public from seeing something even worse: the had been abandoned and left to die.

    At least she tried. She gave aid and comfort to the ones left there to suffer in intolerable heat, no food, no water, no medication,m nothing. She tried. More than I can say for the 'rescue efforts'. Yeah, Brownie, you did a helluva job.

    How about an indictment against the ones in charge?

    It ain't easy.... (none / 0) (#3)
    by kdog on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:34:50 PM EST
    to get a grand jury to vote no true bill...sun god knows I tried to persuade my fellow grand jurors when I served, I was something like 1 for 75.

    The AG's office must have had next to no evidence after all.

    My perspective has changed (none / 0) (#4)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed Jul 25, 2007 at 09:59:00 AM EST
    I used to complain sometimes when the OR was too hot. With 10 lbs of lead shielding, mask, gown and gloves, and lousy hospital AC, I could often skip the gym to lose weight. Since Katrina, and the way Charity Hospital was literally abandoned by FEMA and the Guard (unlike the privately owned Tulane Med Center 2 blocks away), I just imagine for a moment what it was like for those people, and STFU.  

    The DA should be banned from government service for even thinking of filing those charges. I hope these folks and the patients' families sue the pants off of us. We as a nation left them to die because our brave relief agencies (see Blackwater) thought they might have heard a gunshot somewhere.