Dead being found in hospitals and other care facilities

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
NEW ORLEANS — Search teams found more than 40 bodies, many of them elderly patients, inside a hospital flooded out by Hurricane Katrina, officials said yesterday.

Many of the patients died while waiting to be evacuated over the four days after the storm hit, as temperatures inside Memorial Medical Center rose to 106 degrees, said Dave Goodson, assistant administrator at the hospital, owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Tenet spokesman Steven Campanini said some of those found Sunday had died before the hurricane hit, and none of the deaths resulted from a lack of food, water or electricity to power medical equipment.

Many of the patients were seriously ill, Campanini said.

Food and water had been rationed during the crisis, but there was still enough for several more days by the time patients were airlifted out on Sept. 2, said Rene Goux, the hospital's chief executive, who was there throughout the storm and its aftermath.

The 317-bed hospital was still partially surrounded by floodwaters yesterday.

The bodies were recovered Sunday, but the exact number remained unclear. Bob Johannesen, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said 45 patients had been found; Goodson said there were 44, plus three people found dead on the hospital grounds.

Dr. Jeffrey Kochan, a Philadelphia radiologist volunteering in New Orleans, spoke with the recovery team late Sunday after the 36 bodies were found floating on the first floor.

"They're seeing things no human being should have to see," Kochan said.

Police Chief Eddie Compass declined to answer questions yesterday about the discovery, including whether police received any calls for assistance from inside Memorial Medical Center after the hospital was evacuated.
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One thought keep recurring to me as this tragedy plays out. Has ever since we first learned the scope of Katrina's destruction.




Anybody ever read The Stand?
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
One thought keep recurring to me as this tragedy plays out. Has ever since we first learned the scope of Katrina's destruction.



Anybody ever read The Stand?
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Stephen King...yeah. but who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? ;)

The Stand reminds me that we still have some serious illness that'll start cropping up soon from water contamination, especially in those forced to wade through the sewage (including rescue workers). The draining of NO isn't going to be pretty considering they're draining this crap into the ocean. Contaminateed groud water and topsoil. Not to mention the dead animals, rotting food, flooded chemical plants etc...cleanup's going to be a bitch. Rats, gators, cockroaches and carrion birds are going to have a field day. The next bad epidemic might come from all this (touch wood).
 
MrBishop said:
Stephen King...yeah. but who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
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That, my friend, is the real question about life, the universe and everything. I prefer us and them. Right and wrong, good and bad are philosophical concepts and despite what you may believe, your's is no more valid than anyone else's. Us and them is easier to deal with.
 
chcr said:
That, my friend, is the real question about life, the universe and everything. I prefer us and them. Right and wrong, good and bad are philosophical concepts and despite what you may believe, your's is no more valid than anyone else's. Us and them is easier to deal with.
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The problem is that no matter which side of the us vs. them side, you think that you're the good guys, and 'they' are the bad guys.
 
MrBishop said:
The problem is that no matter which side of the us vs. them side, you think that you're the good guys, and 'they' are the bad guys.
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Sure you do. If your human. Hitler, Stalin and Torquemada all thought they were doing all the right things for all the right reasons. :shrug:
 
chcr said:
Sure you do. If your human. Hitler, Stalin and Torquemada all thought they were doing all the right things for all the right reasons. :shrug:
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Mel Brooks said:
All pay heed! Now enters his holiness, Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition.
Torquemada - do not implore him for compassion.
Torquemada - do not beg him for forgiveness.
Torquemada - do not ask him for mercy.
Let's face it - you can't Torquemada anything!
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MrBishop said:
Stephen King...yeah. but who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? ;)
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Good and bad were relative. People who had been inherently good became bad and vice versa.

I was referring more to the chaos though. The formation of a society where money was worthless, possessions meant little, and survival became penultimate. Here these people were, in a world where everything we seem to value was lying around in abundance, and it suddenly was worthless. I would imagine that for awhile in the Gulf area, a jug of purified water was more valuable than spinner rims.
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
I would imagine that for awhile in the Gulf area, a jug of purified water was more valuable than spinner rims.
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Not that they wouldn't have stolen both, given half a chance.
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
I was referring more to the chaos though. The formation of a society where money was worthless, possessions meant little, and survival became penultimate. Here these people were, in a world where everything we seem to value was lying around in abundance, and it suddenly was worthless. I would imagine that for awhile in the Gulf area, a jug of purified water was more valuable than spinner rims.
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There's a book that I read a while back...can't remember the title, where the same descent into darkness played a large part in the storyline. The premise was that electricity stopped working, oil stopped burning, explosives didn't blow up anymore etc... no scientific explanations, but just a focus on how the gloss of civilization can be removed so easily to open up the darkest side of mankind.

I'd imagine that this is how it felt to live in Russia just after it became capitalist. Nobody knowing who owned what, the value of anything, where to go for food and how to pay for it etc..

The Gulf Coast was thrown into a mini version of survival of the fittest, and then people outside the area were surprised about the looting, the violence, the rapes, the fires and petty vengeance.
Corner a rat and you get bit, put people into a crucible and you ground them to their basest levels. Do what you can to survive...
That's why my major peeve in all this was the speed, or lack thereof, at which help arrived. It was too slow and NO started slipping into that crucible mighty quickly.
 
MrBishop said:
Corner a rat and you get bit, put people into a crucible and you ground them to their basest levels. Do what you can to survive...
That's why my major peeve in all this was the speed, or lack thereof, at which help arrived. It was too slow and NO started slipping into that crucible mighty quickly.
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Corner a rat and he reacts to save his ass not to amass possessions.
Stealing a TV set,computer, is not survival its shear greed and stupidity,when as its already been said they were worthless and won't be useable for some time.First rule of survival is Shelter and food ,if they aready had those ,they had no reason to loot .If they didn't have the basics taking electronic instead means they deserve to die ,evolutionary speaking of course.
:winkkiss:
 
Greed is a very base level. It doesn't always make sense.
if they aready had those ,they had no reason to loot
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Sure...the reason is they didn't have those things...now they can have them.

I was discussing something similar with a friend...as to why some people stayed put. Most were there to protect their 'things'. Their TV, computer, their whatever...their stuff. Putting their lives at risk over possessions. Worst, putting the lives of their families at risk over possessions. Hell, some willing to kill to protect their stuff.

Yeah..I have a couple of (not necessary for survival) things that I'd want to take with me if I had the chance. Photos mostly. Everything else in my house is 'stuff' and can be replaced or lived without.

The mindset is conspicuous consumption. You're only worth as much as you own, what kind of car you drive, how big your TV is. I see it all the time with people living in rundown motorhomes with barely enough on their plates, but a brand new $40k 4X4 parked out front and the light of a 60" TV coming out of their cracked living-room window.

Doesn't make sense to me...but it does go a long way to explaining why people are stealing TVs and Compis in the midst of a flood, eh?
 
Nursing Home Owners Charged in Louisiana By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
2 minutes ago



NEW ORLEANS - The husband-and-wife owners of a nursing home were charged with homicide because they did not evacuate 34 elderly patients who died after Hurricane Katrina struck, the first major criminal case related to the storm's still rising death toll.

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For Louisiana alone, the toll surged by more than half Tuesday to 423, and officials fear the numbers could climb as floodwaters recede and more of the city becomes accessible to search teams.

"It's the water. Everything is driven by the water," said Lt. Col. Mike Thompson of the Oklahoma National Guard.

Including deaths in four other states, Katrina's overall toll stood at 659.

Authorities said the toll would be lower if Salvador and Mable Mangano, owners of the St. Rita's nursing home in town of Chalmette, had heeded warnings to evacuate their patients as Katrina came ashore Aug. 29.

"The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not," said Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. "They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people."

The Manganos were released on $50,000 bond each; each of the 34 counts against them carries up to five years in prison. Their attorney, Jim Cobb, said his clients were innocent and had waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials of St. Bernard Parish that never came.

Cobb said the Manganos were forced to make a difficult decision as Katrina approached: risk the health of the patients — many of them frail and on feeding tubes — in an evacuation, or keep them comfortable at the home through the storm.

Tom Rodrigue, whose mother died in the home, was not satisfied. "She deserved the chance, you know, to be rescued instead of having to drown like a rat," he said.

The attorney general is also investigating the discovery of more than 40 corpses at flooded-out Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. A hospital official said the 106-degree heat inside the hospital as the patients waited for days to be evacuated likely contributed to their deaths

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Step one: Build a new jail. A nice big one, with all the modern bells and whistles.

Step two: Throw these two under it.

Step three: Forget they are there.


Off with their heads.
 
Computer systems blamed for feeble hurricane response

REPORTERS at the Wall Street Journal said they have seen documents which show that a swift response by the US federal government to Hurricane Katrina was hampered because FEMA computer servers crashed.
Michael Brown, FEMA's head, resigned yesterday after being recalled by the Department of Homeland Security to Washington DC.

Attempts by agencies to spur the Federal Emergency Management Agency into urgent action were met with bouncing emails, the Journal said.

It quoted a Department of Health official as saying every email it had sent to FEMA staff bounced. "They need a better internet provider during disasters," the Journal quoted her or him as saying.

A number of US agencies made desperate calls to the Department of Homeland Security and to Congresswomen and men, the article claimed. Subscription required.

The newspaper did not say which computer systems FEMA uses. µ
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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the internet (ARPANET) originally meant to be a way for the GVT to keep in contact in case of emergencies. Atomic emergencies, but nonetheless.
 
The "network" is fine. Hell, they've still got internet in NO. FEMAs servers going down have nothing to do with the internet.
 
Maintaining the servers for GVT institutions is part and parcel of maintaining the connections, non?
 
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