The British press is carrying a horrific interview with a British nurse just returned from a NO hospital.
It describes how conditions deteriorated as they waited for help that didn't come until Thursday.
It seems to have the ring of truth, despite coming from a tabloid newspaper.
A BRITISH nurse last night told of the agonising decisions she was forced to make as she 'played God' with patients in her New Orleans hospital, besieged by armed gangs and under fire from snipers.
Although she had to make heartbreaking decisions, she said she never witnessed any incidents of euthanasia that other New Orleans medical staff saw.
'People were dying like flies,' she said.
'People were dying like flies,' she said.
'There were gangs of looters in the chemist's across the street. Some got inside the hospital, put on nurses' uniforms and looked for drugs.'We were surrounded by floodwater 6ft deep. Gunmen in nearby buildings were firing shots through the windows. It was like being in Mogadishu, not the richest country on Earth.
I knew there was nothing that could be done. My job was to save the living. It was the hardest decision of my life to walk out and leave them behind, knowing they would die.' She estimates that 25 people died in the hospital, but says: 'It's still hard to talk about it. I didn't sleep, didn't eat. We were just trying to keep people alive.
The sanitary conditions were appalling.
Patients soiled themselves. The smell was unbearable.
'I kept looking out the window waiting for help. Some National Guardsmen came up in a boat but they went away.
One of them, a kid of about 17, shouted up, "We can't stay. It's too dangerous."
The sanitary conditions were appalling.
Patients soiled themselves. The smell was unbearable.
'I kept looking out the window waiting for help. Some National Guardsmen came up in a boat but they went away.
One of them, a kid of about 17, shouted up, "We can't stay. It's too dangerous."
The snipers were taking potshots through the windows. I was leaning over a patient when a shot went off. I hit the floor. I prayed harder than I've done in my life to let me escape this living hell.
Gunmen looted a bank opposite the hospital. 'They were in a boat,' said Sharen. 'They smashed the window and came out with bags of money.
'A doctor dragged in an elderly woman. Her daughter had stabbed her over a bag of ice. My brain could not take it in. How could a child stab her mother?'
'A doctor dragged in an elderly woman. Her daughter had stabbed her over a bag of ice. My brain could not take it in. How could a child stab her mother?'
The snipers were taking potshots at the choppers but those pilots were heroes.
By first light on Thursday, a flotilla of hovercraft, normally used to ferry tourists around the Louisiana swamplands, formed impromptu rescue teams who risked their lives to help while the authorities dithered. The remaining ablebodied patients were loaded in, but two people who were near death had to be left behind.
Sharen was dropped off in downtown New Orleans:'We were wading through water. We waited in the darkness for two hours. The crowd was angry. Men were saying, "We're gonna rape you."' Atruck took her out of town, then she hitched a lift on an ambulance to Baton Rouge.
By first light on Thursday, a flotilla of hovercraft, normally used to ferry tourists around the Louisiana swamplands, formed impromptu rescue teams who risked their lives to help while the authorities dithered. The remaining ablebodied patients were loaded in, but two people who were near death had to be left behind.
Sharen was dropped off in downtown New Orleans:'We were wading through water. We waited in the darkness for two hours. The crowd was angry. Men were saying, "We're gonna rape you."' Atruck took her out of town, then she hitched a lift on an ambulance to Baton Rouge.
Here is the link:
http://www.rednova.com/news/health/237136/i_looked_at_patients_and_decided_who_was_to_live/
I don't know what weight we can give to every detail of this, but it seems to carry the ring of truth to me.
Searching more online I find nothing direct from west of the atlantic, referencing yet to the "incidents of euthanasia that other New Orleans medical staff saw.".
Google news, searching for "euthanasia New orleans" and sorting by date gave me
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/11/gov-blanco-on-august-29_n_7188.html
"Huffington Post,*NY*- 5 hours ago
... In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told ... Euthanasia is illegal in Louisiana, and The Mail on Sunday is protecting the ..."
But when I read the article, the word Euthanasia is nowhere to be found, nor any mention of the interview with the doctor. Something seems to have changed.
I did find this :
"In local hospitals, doctors and nurses trapped with thousands of patients had to decide who got medicine and who got hooked up to life-saving ventilators in hot, dark wards as supplies of water, food and medicine dwindled. By the end of the first week, doctors were forced to decide between intravenously feeding themselves or their patients."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA091105.1N.katrina_special.cc48182.html
But there is lots from UK and australian sources. There appears to be at least one other entirely independent interview with a doctor.
Can we assume this IS a smoke without fire, arising from sensational journalism, or is there more to come out do you think ? Or to be censored ?
My opinion on the "euthanasia" is that no doctor should be criticised, provided she did the best possible in the circumstances. If others create insane circumstances, it's not their doing.
But the other details - well ! Fits perfectly with what was in the live blog someone gave us a link to.
We all need to learn from this how fragile our societies really are, and how thin the veneer of civilisation. Anyone feeling superior is missing the point.
Note: The italics in the quotes are added by me, in an attempt to identify what is definitely the witness speaking.
