by Sheri Fink
35 the company was covering their legal expenses: According to Harry Anderson, Tenet spokesperson, quoted in Zigmond, Jessica, “Accused Doc Gets Defense Fund.”
36 released a statement: Tenet Healthcare Corporation, “Tenet Response to Action by Louisiana Attorney General.” (Dallas, TX, July 18, 2006); http://www.tenethealth.com/News/Documents/2006%20Press%20Releases/Tenet%20Response%20to%20Action%20by%20Louisiana%20Attorney%20General.pdf.
37 it would be selling Memorial: “Ochsner to Buy 3 N.O. Hospitals,” The Advocate, July 19, 2006; “Tenet Agrees to Sell Three New Orleans Hospitals to Ochsner Health System,” Business Wire, July 18, 2006; “Tenet Selling Three Hospitals,” Dallas Morning News, July 18, 2006; “Tenet in $900 Million Settlement,” The Associated Press/New York Times, June 30, 2006. The purchase price was revealed later.
38 help fund a nearly billion-dollar settlement: As Tenet made its agreement to settle Medicare fraud charges, LifeCare Holdings, Inc., was cleaning up a much smaller reimbursement issue with the government in an unrelated matter. In June, 2006 the company entered into a Compliance Agreement with HHS’s Office of the Inspector General as part of a roughly $2.6 million settlement agreement related to the way its prior owners calculated annual costs, resulting in Medicare overpayments.
39 ICU nurse Cathy Green […] ‘You did the wrong thing,’ ever.”: Interview with Cathy Green (February 26, 2007). Mr. Castaing confirmed her recollection of their meeting.
40 a three-day meeting: Description of the meeting and its findings were based on: interviews with Dr. Wecht, Dr. Baden, Dr. Middleberg, Michael Morales, and Dr. Minyard; Dr. Wecht’s handwritten notes of the meeting; forensic charts and tables distributed at the meeting; toxicology reports prepared by National Medical Services, Inc., for each of the forty-one bodies tested; autopsy reports and death certificates for each of the patients. Dr. Wecht also included an account of the meeting in his book, Wecht, Cyril H. and Dawna Kaufmann. A Question of Murder (New York: Prometheus Books, 2008), pp. 283–285.
41 correspondence from one of its attorneys: Copy of letter from Glen R. Petersen to Louisiana Department of Justice, dated March 17, 2006.
42 fighting a federal judgment: See, for example, Filosa, Gwen, “Jordan: N.O. Needs to Bail Out DA,” Times-Picayune, October 23, 2007; http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/10/jordan_no_needs_to_bail_out_da.html.
43 Jordan was caught: Eddie Jordan did not respond to requests for an interview.
44 “locked and loaded”: “Military Due to Move in to New Orleans,” CNN, September 2, 2005.
45 was under investigation: See, for example, the excellent video encapsulation: “Behind the Danziger Bridge Shooting,” PBS, Frontline, June 28, 2011, screened at: http://video.pbs.org/video/2029672776/, part of a multiyear investigative journalism collaboration between ProPublica, the Times-Picayune, and Frontline on police violence after Katrina. More of the project, led by journalists A. C. Thompson, Tom Jennings, Gordon Russell, Brendan McCarthy, and Laura Maggi, can be found at ProPublica’s “Law and Disorder” page: http://www.propublica.org/nola/case/topic/case-one.
46 Morales drafted a letter: Letter quoted in Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston, “Report Probes New Orleans Hospital Deaths,” CNN, December 5, 2007. Additional context provided in interviews with Michael Morales.
47 five-part Times-Picayune “tick tock”: Meitrodt, “For Dear Life.”
48 Baltz met again […] small congregation: Baltz, The Kat’s Paw, and interviews with the author. Mr. Dosch (interview, June 4, 2013) said he was “probably just deep in thought” and that if Baltz was not invited, it was unintentional.
49 lawyers filed petitions: See, for example: Mitchell, Jeffrey A., “A Guide to Medical Malpractice: An Overview of Louisiana Law,” Avvo; http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/a-guide-to-medical-malpractice-an-overview-of-louisiana-law-1. Additional information provided in interviews with Lorraine LeBlanc, executive director, the Louisiana Patient’s Compensation Fund, and Dianna A. Schenk (with the Louisiana Division of Administration) in 2007 and 2008. According to LeBlanc, as of June 12, 2007, 196 medical malpractice claims had been filed with the PCF against private hospitals and nursing homes alone (a separate system existed for publically owned health facilities).
50 soliciting potential clients: Tammie Holley e-mail to attorneys involved in Preston, et al v. Tenet (April 20, 2008). Another of her e-mails reads: “I am a GREAT rainmaker. The clients love me […] I am a natural at both advertising AND marketing. Marketing harms plaintiff lawyer’s reputations to a degree. I could care less,” sent February 28, 2008, subject: “future cases %,” exhibit nineteen in motion for summary judgment by Best Koeppel law firm, Preston, et al v. Tenet, February 2013. The e-mails came to light in the course of legal action involving the division of funds between attorneys in the class action settlement.
51 The first suit related to Memorial: Exhibits in Preston, et al v. Tenet 2:06-cv-03179-EEEF-KWR, available on PACER. For a summary of the movements of the case between state and federal court, see: “Local Controversy and Home State Exceptions in the Class Action Fairness Act Sent this Hurricane Katrina Case Back to State Court,” CAFA Law Blog, January 24, 2007.
52 described in her suit: “Petition for Damages,” Karen Lagasse, individual, and on behalf of her deceased mother, Merle Lagasse v. Tenet Healthsystem Memorial Medical Center, Inc., René Goux, Roy J. Culotta, Richard Deichmann, and Jane Doe, Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, case no. 06-8505, August 25, 2006.
53 “He was awake, alert and oriented”: “Petition for Wrongful Death and Damages,” Carrie R. Everett, Emmett E. Everett Jr., and Delfina V. Everett, individually and on behalf of the Estate of Emmett E. Everett Sr. v. Tenet Healthsystems Memorial Medical Center, Inc., d/b/a Memorial Medical Center, LifeCare Management Services, L.L.C., et al, Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, case no. 2006-7948, September 1, 2006.
54 “I don’t believe that a person with a sane mind”: Mike Von Fremd, “Katrina Murder or Mercy? Doctor and Nurses Charged,” ABC News, Good Morning America, July 19, 2006; http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=2210689.
55 “At least now”: Callimachi, Rukmini, “Doctor, 2 Nurses Accused of Killing Patients with Drug Injections in Katrina’s Aftermath,” The Associated Press, July 19, 2006.
56 “Euthanasia is something”: Callimachi, Rukmini, “Doctor, 2 Nurses Accused of Killing Patients with Lethal Injections in Katrina’s Aftermath,” The Associated Press, July 19, 2006.
57 a similar lawsuit at another hospital: LaCoste v. Pendleton Methodist Hosp., L.L.C., La. 07-0008, 966 So. 2d 519 (La. 2007).
58 “a new theory”: Kristin McMahon, IronHealth.
59 The NBC television news magazine Dateline: Hoda Kotb, “No Way Out; Doctors and Staff of Lindy Boggs Medical Center Taking Care of Patients Without Electricity, Water or Phone Service After Hurricane Katrina,” Dateline NBC, August 25, 2006.
60 an even more troubling story […] that the patients be euthanized: This section draws on lightly redacted state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) and federal Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) investigative memoranda, interview reports, legal correspondence, search summaries, autopsy and toxicology reports, medical records, hospital census, and an extensive “After Action Report” and individual written narratives from Shreveport Fire Department personnel related to Lindy Boggs Medical Center. These were obtained, through public records requests, from the Louisiana Department of Justice and the US Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting information came from interviews with Elaine Bias (May 10, 2008), Jessie Lynn LaSalle (May 8, 2008), and Dr. James Riopelle (May 5, 2013), photographs taken during the disaster, and court records related to lawsuits against Lindy Boggs Medical Center.
61 at Touro Infirmary […] same drug combination used at Memorial: This section also draws on MFCU and HHS OIG lightly redacted investigative memoranda, interview reports, legal correspondence, medical records, autopsy reports, toxico
logy reports, and subpoenas. Additional information came from interviews with Nina Levy (November 4, 2008), Brent Becnel (September 28, 2011—“At some point you just have to save…”), and Dr. Richard Vinroot Jr. (May 2, 2008), as well as depositions of hospital leadership and staff, petitions, judgments, and other case material from civil lawsuits against Touro. Touro president and CEO Les Hirsch and the doctor who filed the anonymous complaint with the state declined requests for interviews. Other accounts of the Touro Infirmary experience during Katrina include one by the hospital archivist, Catherine C. Kahn, “Touro Infirmary: A Katrina Success Story,” retrieved from: http://katrina.jwa.org/content/vault/SJHS%202006%20Panel%20talk_ee79c0ef25.pdf. Kahn writes that when a fire department superintendent said they had one hour to leave “even if patients had to be left behind,” the staff worked intensely and rescued everyone: “Dr. [Kevin] Jordan says it reminded him of the scene from ‘Miss Siagon’ [sic]. Not one patient was left behind.” Apparently Kahn, who was not at the hospital during Katrina, was not aware of Mr. Arechaga.
62 In her book: Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America (New York: Penguin, 2006; Viking Press, 1979), 265–274. Additional information about Odun Arechaga came from Nina Levy, his longtime close friend. She arranged for him to be transferred to a nursing home near her in Illinois after Katrina. Arechaga died more than five years later, on January 13, 2011.
63 Charity Hospital: Information for this section is drawn from: call-ins to WWL during the emergency; Berggren, Ruth, “Unexpected Necessities—Inside Charity Hospital,” NEJM, 353, 15 (October 13, 2005): 1550–1553; Van Meter, Keith, “Katrina at Charity Hospital: Much Ado About Something,” The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 322, 5 (November 2006): 251–254; Berger, Eric, “Charity Hospital and Disaster Preparedness,” Annals of Emergency Medicine, 14, 1 (January 2006): 53–56; Dr. Ben deBoisblanc undated interview with “The Katrina Experience: An Oral History Project,” retrieved from: http://thekatrinaexperience.net/?p=16#more-16; StoryCorps interview of Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke by Justin Lundgren (MBY001596, May 28, 2006); Duggal, Anshu, Janis G. Letourneau, and Leonard R. Bok, “LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Department of Radiology: Effects of Hurricane Katrina,” Academic Radiology, 16, 5 (May 2009): 584–592; Barkemeyer, Brian M., “Practicing Neonatology in a Blackout: The University Hospital NICU in the Midst of Hurricane Katrina: Caring for Children Without Power or Water,” Pediatrics 117 (2006): S369–374; and interviews with Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke (November 6, 2009), Dr. James Aiken (2007), and informal discussions with others from Charity Hospital. The number of patients varies between sources and is an estimate. A copy of a table generated on November 9, 2005, from the DMORT database lists only one body recovered from Charity and two from University, however nine deaths at Charity are mentioned in US Senate, Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared, p. 406, based on a January 2006 Senate staff interview with Charity’s emergency preparedness medical director Dr. James Aiken.
64 hospital had been evacuated when: For example, CNN Newsnight carried an interview with Dr. Ruth Berggren on Wednesday, August 31, 2005, at the end of which anchor Aaron Brown referred to Berggren as having been at Charity “until it was evacuated”; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/31/asb.01.html.
65 In mid-September he wrote: Mandamus Hearing, Does v. Foti, transcript (September 11, 2007), pp. 43–44.
66 60 Minutes: These recollections about the production of “Was It Murder?” CBS, 60 Minutes, September 24, 2006, are from interviews with Pou, Simmons, and Wartelle. Kevin Tedesco, executive director of communications for 60 Minutes (in e-mails in June and July 2013) wrote that CBS, according to company practice, did not provide Mr. Simmons with a copy of the interview, however that CBS standards allow subjects to audiotape their interviews. Tedesco also wrote that Ed Bradley “was never involved in this story as it was properly claimed first by Morley Safer’s producer. The reporters at 60 minutes are famously competitive, however, and it’s routine for them to fight for stories behind the scenes. Everybody at 60 minutes wanted to do this story.”
67 American Medical Association: Interviews with Dr. Eugene Myers (July 10, 2007; November 29, 2007).
68 Louisiana State Medical Society: Interview with Amy Phillips, general counsel for the LSMS (December 2007), and interview with Dr. Donald Palmisano (2008).
69 in 1990, he had suggested: The arrested man who died was Adolph Archie. For background on this and other stories about Minyard’s history, see Baum, Dan. Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2009). A sweet profile of Minyard was written by Shaila Dewan, “For Trumpet-Playing Coroner, Hurricane Provides Swan Song,” New York Times, October 17, 2005. A more critical interview was conducted by Frontline on June 17, 2010: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/post-mortem/interviews/frank-minyard.html. Minyard sat for roughly a dozen interviews with the author from 2007–2010.
70 the expert consultants submitted their reports: At the conclusion of the criminal case the following year, Attorney General Foti’s office released a lightly redacted version of these reports at a press conference and to a small number of reporters, including the author. Memorial employees filed suit as “Jane and John Does” and successfully stopped further release, but the reports were subsequently posted on the CNN website: http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/08/27/memorial.medical.center.pdf. Dr. Anna Pou’s response was also posted: http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/08/26/pou.statement.pdf. It accused the attorney general of releasing the documents “in an effort to justify his prior arrest of Dr. Pou before the upcoming election in October 2007.”
71 documented spending: Records submitted to the attorney fee review board, Louisiana State Legislature by Richard Simmons and obtained by author through public records request.
72 remain forever hidden: 2006-KK-2408, writ application denied, in re: “A Matter Under Investigation” (Parish of Orleans).
73 For months: Copy of letter from Horace Baltz to Frank Minyard, November 17, 2006.
74 True valor: Copy of letter from Horace Baltz to Richard Deichmann, October 28, 2006.
75 two widely publicized killings: See, for example, Erin Moriarty, “Storm of Murder,” CBS, 48 Hours, October 13, 2007 (updated August 14, 2008); http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18559_162-3348928.html.
76 extreme dysfunction: See, for example, Brown, Ethan, “New Orleans Murder Rate for Year Will Set Record: Prosecutions Are so Lax in Post-Flood City That Criminals Speak of ‘Misdemeanour Murder,’ Ethan Brown Reports,” The Guardian, November 6, 2007; http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/06/usa; Webster, Richard A., “Getting Tough,” City Business, July 2, 2007, which contrasts the problems with the success of the new violent offenders unit; McCarthy, Brendan, “Draft Is Rare Portal into NOPD,” Times-Picayune, November 17, 2007; http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/11/draft_is_rare_portal_into_nopd.html; Court Watch NOLA quarterly reports from 2007 (www.courtwatchnola.org).
77 highest murder rate: Using FBI 2006 Uniform Crime Report data of 162 cases of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in New Orleans, and estimating a 2006 population average of 223,000.
78 On a foggy day […] take other people’s lives: Brenda and Tabatha O’Bryant, interviews with the author (2007 and 2013).
79 he could not influence the script: Interview with Richard Simmons (May 2, 2007) and letter to the author, “Re: Fact Check Reply,” August 14, 2009.
80 “It’s abhorrent”: Jeter, Lynne, “Anna Pou Case Takes Unexpected Turns: Louisiana Medical Community Rallies to Support New Orleans Physician Accused of Killing Four Patients Post-Katrina,” Louisiana Medical News (March 2007).
81 The doctor on the show: Turk, Craig, Janet Leahy, and David E. Kelley, “Angel of Death,” Boston Legal, season 3, episode 11, January 9, 2007; transcript retrieved from boston-legal.org/script/bl03x11.pdf, version updated February 4, 2007.
82 “Their acts were those of heroism”: “American Colleg
e of Surgeons Calls for Fair Investigation in New Orleans Case,” USNewswire, January 11, 2007. Interview with Dr. Eugene Myers (November 29, 2007), who said, “They copied my letter.”
83 “very, very extenuating circumstances”: “Accusations of Mercy Killing in New Orleans,” CNN, Newsnight with Aaron Brown, October 12, 2005; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0510/12/asb.02.html.
84 “not consistent with the ethical standards”: Caplan, Arthur L., PhD. “Report for New Orleans, Coroner’s Office, Dr. Frank Minyard, State of Louisiana,” January 26, 2007.
85 and passive euthanasia: The “passive” category is sometimes split further into direct (having the intention of causing death) and indirect forms.
86 “for he was sore afraid,”: The Bible, 1 Chronicles 10:4, King James Version.
87 “Stand over me and kill me!”: The Bible, 2 Samuel 1:9, New International Version.
88 “I knew that after he had fallen”: The Bible, 2 Samuel 1:10, New International Version.
89 “I will not give a lethal drug”: See, for example, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, “Greek Medicine”; http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html; and, for a discussion of modern controversy surrounding the Oath, Peter Tyson’s “The Hippocratic Oath Today,” PBS, NOVA, March 27, 2001; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html.
90 “For the first time in our tradition”: Levine, Maurice. Psychiatry & Ethics (New York: George Braziller, 1972), p. 325.
91 “My duty is to preserve life”: Cited by Herold, J. Christopher. Bonaparte in Egypt (Tuscon, AZ: Fireship Press, 2009; previous ed.: New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p. 332. See also: Harris, James C., “Art and Images in Psychiatry: Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken at Jaffa,” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 63, issue 5 (May 2006).
92 The Turks found several alive: Herold. Bonaparte in Egypt, pp. 331, 338.