Hurricane Katrine Case

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The article describes the events that happened at Memorial Medical Center during and immediately following Hurricane Katrine in Uptown New Orleans. Once the power was knocked out and running water, the hospital tempter rose to about 100 degrees and resources became limited. As resources became limited Anna Pou was force to result to triage which she was not trained for, therefore her method of triage was questioned. Another doctor, Cook, who was the administrator of Memorial ; his methods of patient care were also questioned. In order to evacuate the hospital in the time frame given to him by the state police, Cook gave Pou instructions on how kill four ICU patients who were obese. Pou defends her actions by stating she was only making the patients comfortable, in a sense that if they allowed the patients to live through the next day it would be as if the patients were living in hell. In July 2006 the doctor and the nurses in connection with the death of the patients were arrested but the charges were later dropped. …show more content…

Pou who was not trained in triage had to find a way to save as many lives as she could. Pou allowing the most healthy patients to evacuate first would allow for most of her resources to be used on the patients who needed them the most. I can agree with this choice because during the hurricane transporting patients was a difficult task. Terminally ill patients most likely would have not survived transportation in the immediate days following Hurricane Katrina. Therefore, keeping them in the hospital was safer than exposing them to the damage the hurricane cause, which would risk infection that could also lead to their

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