Updates

Support the CDMR's legislative proposals by contacting your state legislators and by making donations. (Checks payable to Committee for Disaster Medicine Reform, 748 Camp St, New Orleans, LA 70130

Nov 14th, 2008

...she stayed. ...she served. ...she paid the price.

...now it's your turn to give back! Please Join Us!
WHEN: Wednesday, December 3rd 6PM - 9PM
WHERE: At the Home of Anne and Edmund Redd,
1427 Fourth Street

Oct 10, 2008

Media Outlets continue to hound Dr. Pou, other docs, nurses and their patientsover access to private medical records

Just in case anyone believed that things have returned to normal for Dr. Anna Pou and her colleagues, CNN and the Times Picayune are continuing their pursuit of access to medical records of patients at New Orleans’ Memorial Hospital during the harrowing days around Hurricane Katrina. Despite the decision of an Orleans Parish grand jury not to pursue allegations against Dr. Anna Pou and her nurse colleagues in July 2007, both media outlets have continued to assert their right to intrude into patient privacy issues and to foment new controversy where none now exists.

The media pursuit of confidential patient records and other documents collected by the state of Louisiana and the Orleans Parish District Attorney prior to the grand jury’s rejection of charges takes a new turn on Monday, October 13 when the Louisiana State Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from lawyers for CNN and the Times Picayune on one side and attorneys for the medical professionals who stayed and served patients in need during the August 2005 hurricane.

“The fact that after more than three long years Dr. Anna Pou continues to fight legal battles to protect her reputation is most disappointing and a sad commentary on media intrusion into the highly private lives of people who suffered and died at Memorial and their families. We believe that the rights of those who died and the medical professionals who sacrificed to serve them should be protected at all costs and we will vigorously make that point in Court on Monday,” said Rick Simmons, Dr. Pou’s attorney.

State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, who soundly defeated then AG Charles Foti last fall, will present arguments that support the legal position of the doctors, nurses, and Memorial Hospital and oppose the public release of this highly sensitive and private information.

The Court is expected to rule on the CNN / Times Picayune request sometime in the next 3 months. A ruling in their favor will open thousands of pages of highly personal medical records and as yet unsubstantiated statements supposedly collected by investigators for Foti as he sought without success to build a case against Dr. Pou and her colleagues.

Stay tuned for more details…

Jul 21, 2008
La. doctor cleared in patient deaths recalls storm
Hurricane Katrina hospital horror: La. doctor cleared in patient deaths recounts storm scene
By MARY FOSTER

Trapped in a hospital with 2,000 people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Anna Pou recalls her throat burning from the rancid smell. Toilets had backed up and temperatures in the eight-story building reached almost 110 degrees because the windows didn't open. Power had failed, levees broke and 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded, including the hospital basement where the generators were. It was completely dark at night. Stories of murders, gangs raping women and children circulated through Memorial Medical Center, where the people, including more than 200 patients, feared for their lives. Pou, the doctor accused — and later cleared — of giving lethal doses of drugs to four patients during the chaos recalled the four days of misery in a recent interview with The Associated Press. It was her most detailed account of the scene where 34 patients died since the storm three years ago. "You can't really understand what it was like if you weren't there," Pou said. "Nothing can describe it." It began as a typical weekend for Pou, who wasn't worried when she made her way to Memorial in August 2005. Hurricane Katrina appeared headed to Florida. Even when warnings were issued for New Orleans, the respected cancer surgeon never thought of leaving. She stayed with her patients in what would become a personal and professional hell. After the storm passed Monday, Aug. 29, it seemed the decision not to evacuate patients and staff was a good one. They didn't know levees were collapsing. "We made it through the storm pretty good," Pou remembered. "On Monday, it was just a little hot, but we had some generators working and food and water twice a day." By Tuesday, water was rising in the streets, eventually reaching 10 feet. The hospital basement flooded and the generators failed. When nightfall came, the hospital and the city were in darkness. Water pressure dropped, toilets backed up and the temperatures began to swelter. "The smell got to be rancid in no time," Pou said. "It burned the back of your throat." The deteriorating situation had dire consequences. Those trapped in the hospital could hear voices in the dark. People had broken into a credit union office across the street and holed up there. "We started hearing stories about murders, about gangs raping women and children," Pou said. "The women that had their children there were really scared." They had a few flashlights but no spare batteries. "One of the nurses showed me how to bump my foot against the next step to find it," Pou said. "We counted the steps from one floor to another so we wouldn't miss one and fall." Pou said staff struggled to climb stairwells, carry supplies, and spent two-hour shifts squeezing ventilators to keep patients alive. "The heat was so terrible, it wore you down," Pou said. "We were trying to keep the patients comfortable. The 9-year-old daughter of one of the nurses even took shifts fanning them." Airboats evacuated some patients and babies from the nursery, but most remained. All Pou said she could do was try to keep critically ill patients comfortable. "Tuesday night was when we realized we were going to be there for a while," Pou said. They gathered supplies, rationed food and water with non-patients, and prayed. About seven medical staffers, including Pou, stayed with patients. Others went to the roof and the ground floor to coordinate the intermittent rescue efforts with the few boats and helicopters that showed up. "When a helicopter left, we never knew if they would be back," Pou recalled. "They might be sent to another rescue. And after dark it was too dangerous for them to fly at all." Under the military's orders, the staff did reverse triage. The healthiest patients were taken out first in an effort to save the greatest number of people. Many had to be carried to the roof. It was slow, backbreaking work, with as many as 10 people struggling up the dark stairs with a stretcher. At least 34 people died waiting for rescuers. Pou was one of the last to leave Memorial. She returned to New Orleans — her house had not been flooded — from Baton Rouge a few months later at Thanksgiving. In January 2006, she started working at a Baton Rouge hospital, trying to put Katrina behind her. Then, in July 2007, she was greeted by four police officers on her arrival home from a 13-hour day of surgery. They handcuffed her, still in her scrubs, and drove her to jail. She was booked on four counts of second-degree murder. Attorney General Charles Foti accused Pou and two nurses of using a "lethal cocktail" of medication to kill four elderly patients. Pou has always maintained she killed no one during those desperate days, though she acknowledges patients were sedated. She was forced to give up private practice and started teaching at the LSU medical school in Baton Rouge. Months of pain and frustration set in. A year after their arrest, the New Orleans district attorney dropped charges against the nurses, and a grand jury refused to indict Pou. Two civil lawsuits in the deaths are pending. "I felt very alone," Pou said of her year of fighting the criminal accusations. "Even if people were around me I felt an intense loneliness. It was as if no one knew what I was going through. Pou's supporters believed she and the nurses acted heroically. A group of doctors and nurses held a rally on the anniversary of her arrest, and hundreds turned in support. Her experience helped her get landmark state legislation approved to protect the actions of doctors and nurses during disasters. "It was that support and prayer that got me through it," said Pou, who is back in private practice. As Katrina's third anniversary nears, Pou said the experience was life-altering. "I've learned a lot from this," she said. "I thought I had suffered at times in my life, but I had no idea the depths of pain one person could feel. I think that has made me a better person and certainly a more compassionate doctor."

Jul 18, 2008
New legislation pleases doctor accused of murder.
By MARY FOSTER

NEW ORLEANS - Dr. Anna Pou thought nothing could be worse than five days spent in a flooded hospital following Hurricane Katrina, struggling to keep patients alive and hoping for rescue. That was before she was arrested and accused of deliberately murdering four desperately ill patients. On Monday, Pou (pronounced Poe) credited that experience for new landmark legislation designed to protect medical personnel in Louisiana from civil suits and provide a board of professionals to review criminal charges. "Throughout the whole ordeal, I talked about wanting something good to come out of it," Pou told the Associated Press. "I was a little naive because I believed that if medical personnel did the best they could during an emergency they wouldn't be sued." On June 8, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the last bill in a three-piece package designed to protect medical personnel and patients in future disasters. In the aftermath of Katrina, Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti accused Pou and two nurses - Cheri Landry and Lori Budo - of killing hospital patients after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The Orleans Parish district attorney dropped charges against the nurses, and a grand jury later refused to indict Pou. Foti accused the women of using morphine and sedatives - which he described as a "lethal cocktail" - to kill four patients, ages 62 to 90, who would have otherwise survived the sweltering, chaotic conditions at Memorial Medical Center. Pou, a cancer surgeon who pushed for the new laws, said the accusations inspired her to see to it that doctors, nurses and other medical workers would be protected during future disasters. "I think what happened to the three of us could really hurt volunteering across the nation," Pou said. "People all across the country told me they would worry about stepping in during a disaster, worry about what they might face." Two of the new laws limit civil lawsuits against medical professionals who work during a declared disaster. The third lets prosecutors use a medical panel to review evidence when a doctor or nurse is suspected of euthanasia or other criminal medical actions during a disaster. The measures extend the so-called Good Samaritan law, which protects those rendering emergency assistance from lawsuits, to health care professionals who are being paid during a disaster. Another provision protects medical workers when "reverse" triage protocols are put into use during disasters. Those protocols make patients not expected to survive the last to be evacuated. Many doctors and nurses who stayed to serve during Hurricane Katrina faced civil lawsuits for patient deaths that occurred while waiting for evacuations because of that rule. The third measure establishes an independent medical panel consisting of a coroner, a member of the medical community and a disaster medicine expert appointed by the governor. Backers say the panel would base its opinion on scientifically reliable evidence which may help all parties avoid a lengthy grand jury process where there is no forensic basis for prosecution. "I think this will not only protect the doctors and nurses during a disaster, it will guarantee patients that they will have medical workers to take care of them during a disaster," said Dr. Russell Klein, president of the Louisiana Medical Society. "Patients trapped in a hospital are going to want to know there will be doctors and nurses to take care of them." The measures go into effect with any declared disaster. Pou and others who worked to have the measure pass, hope it will catch on in other states as well. "It's not just hurricanes, but floods, tornadoes, or terrorists attacks," Pou said. "And most disaster planners agree it's not a case of if something like that will happen, but when."

Monday, July 14th, 2008

LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE ENACTS AMERICA’S MOST COMPREHENSIVE DISASTER MEDICINE REFORM

Landmark legislation reflects important lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina

On Tuesday June 8th Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law, the last of three pieces of legislation designed to protect medical personnel and patients in the event of future disasters. All three Acts will apply only during declared disasters and are applicable to individual medical personnel (physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, along with visiting doctors and nurses from other states).

According to supporters of the legislation, in passing these three bills without a single dissenting vote, the legislature recognized that medical care during disasters is rendered under extraordinary circumstances in conditions that are far from traditional, and that protecting medical judgment under such conditions was a necessity.

It is noteworthy that these bills were enacted coincidental with the naming of the season’s first hurricane and as Louisiana and the Gulf Coast approach the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, catalyst for these badly needed reforms. Supporters stress however, that these bills should be understood well beyond the context of hurricanes alone, and that they were apply in all cases of declared disasters such as terrorist acts, chemical or petroleum plant explosions, train derailments that resulted in a toxic release and pandemics, as well as tornados and other natural disasters.

Louisiana’s unprecedented legislative remedies were spurred by events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the arrest of three medical professionals who stayed and served patients in-need during the storm, only to be accused of criminal wrongdoing in the deaths of nearly forty stranded and acutely ill hospital patients by the state’s then Attorney General. A Grand Jury ultimately found no cause for pursuit of those allegations. However, civil suits were filed by several family members of patients in the wake of the Attorney General’s actions. Some of those civil suits are still pending in Orleans Parish courts.


With the signing of these three Acts of the Legislature, Louisiana is at the forefront of national disaster medicine reform and supporters believe these Acts could become a model for other states considering similar action across the country.

“It is only fitting that Louisiana took the unprecedented step of righting the wrongs that were done to medical professionals and their patients during and after Hurricane Katrina, and to call national attention to the need for sweeping reforms and protections”, said Dr. Anna Pou, a central organizer of the state’s reform coalition and one of those falsely accused by the state in Katrina-related patient deaths. Pou was instrumental in organizing, raising funds for and lobbying for the Committee for Disaster Medicine reform

Other leading organizations involved in passing the landmark legislation were the Louisiana State Medical Society, the Louisiana State Nurses Association and the Louisiana Nurse Anestithists Association. The Louisiana District Attorney’s Association, once thought to be a potential opponent of the bill which provides for criminal liability protections, signed on as an important survivor after recognizing the need for reform and helping to craft a compromise that protected the constitutional rights of law enforcement officials to do their jobs without direct interference.

A summary of each bill enacted and signed by the Governor follows.

Senate Bill 330 (by Senator Joel Chaisson)

Senate Bill 330 amends the Louisiana’s Good Samaritan Statute applicable during declared disasters only. This measure protects Healthcare professionals under the Good Samaritan Statue regardless of whether or not they are compensated for their work. This is an important change as most healthcare professionals are “working” during a disaster, whereas the original statue only offered civil protection if services were “gratuitous”. In addition, the measure protects medical personnel from “simple negligence” and only allows liability for “gross negligence “ and “willfull misconduct”.

This bill, which amends the Good Samaritan Law, is the first of its kind in the country. The Good Samaritan statutes attempts to encourage voluntarism by medical personnel during medical emergencies. This statute recognizes the self-sacrifice by medical personnel in remaining “in harms way” during disasters and protects them from frivolous litigation claims.

The Bill was approved by the Senate of a vote of 38 to 0 and the House passed by 94 to 0 (with 34 co-authors).

Senate Bill 301 (by Senator Joel Chaisson)

During disasters, “reverse” triage protocols are often put into use, with those patients not expected to survive being the last to be evacuated. Many doctors and nurses who stayed to serve during Hurricane Katrina have faced or are facing civil lawsuits for patient deaths that occurred while waiting for evacuations. Senate Bill 301 gives immunity for simple and gross negligence by doctors and nurses, thereby, protecting them from civil damage to patients as a result of evacuation or treatment (or failed evacuation or treatment) at the direction of the military or government in accordance with “disaster medicine” protocols. For the first time, a state statute defines disaster medicine as “patient care” under circumstances when the number of patients exceeds normal medical capacities. The statute recognizes that medical personnel should not bear civil liability for such disastrous situations unless involved in intentional misconduct.

This Bill passed the Senate 38 to 0 and the House 97 to 0 (with 37 co-authors).

House Bill 1379 (By Speaker of the House, Jim Tucker)

House Bill 1379 sets up a unique “Disaster Medicine Review Panel” concept to examine “medical judgment” during disaster times. The important features of this, first in the country legislation are:

* An independent medical panel consisting of three members: the Coroner, a member of the medical community and a disaster medicine expert appointed by the Governor. The panel would render an independent opinion regarding medical judgment. The panel must rest its opinion on scientifically reliable evidence which may help all parties avoid a lengthy Grand Jury process where there is no forensic basis for prosecution.

* The prosecuting authority will refrain from arresting medical personnel until the opinion is rendered.

* The panel review process is advisory and allows an opportunity for respondent medical personnel to provide input.

* The standard of care of medical personnel is established as “good faith medical judgment” given the disastrous circumstances under which the judgment was rendered.

The House Bill was passed by the House by 102 to 0 and passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to 0.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Times-Picayune
Panel OKs reviews of doctor acts in disasters
Prosecutors could seek board's advice
By Ed Anderson

BATON ROUGE -- Legislation designed to help prosecutors determine whether to file charges against doctors, nurses or other health care professionals for their actions during or immediately after disasters sped out of a Senate committee Tuesday, leaving it one step short of going to Governor Bobby Jindal's desk.

The Judiciary A Committee unanimously approved House Bill 1379 by House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, sending it to the full Senate, where it is expected to be approved.

The bill establishes a three-member Emergency-Disaster Medicine Review Panel to examine disaster-related decisions by health-care personnel. A district attorney or state attorney general could choose to ask the board for an evaluation of a medical professional's conduct in a case before launching a prosecution. The findings of the panel would be advisory and not binding, Tucker said.

The review panel would be made up of the parish coroner where the medical services were rendered, a member of the state professional society that oversees the conduct of the medical professional and an "expert in disaster medicine" named by the governor.

The bill is the result of a case involving Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses. Former Attorney General Charles Foti had the three arrested in 2006 on murder charges for allegedly administering lethal doses of drugs to patients left ill and sweltering in Memorial Medical Center in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck. Charges were never filed against the three.

Prosecutors who use the panel to determine whether a criminal charge is warranted must refer their investigative files to the committee in confidence for its review, and the panel's response to the prosecutor would also be confidential.

June 6, 2008

COMMITTEE FOR DISASTER MEDICINE REFORM ACTION ALERT: VOTES TO BE TAKEN ON ALL THREE REFORM BILLS ON TUESDAY!

Dear Friends and Supporters:

House Bill 1379 by Speaker Tucker which provides badly needed criminal liability protections for doctors and nurses serving in times of declared disasters will be voted on by the Senate Judiciary A Committee on Tuesday, June 10th. Please call your state senator and encourage him / her to support HB 1379! Names and email addresses for these committee members follow:

Senator Julie Quinn - quinnj@legis.state.la.us
Senator Jack Donahue - donahuej@legis.state.la.us
Senator Reggie Dupre, Jr. - lasen20@legis.state.la.us
Senator Nick Gautreaux - gautreauxn@legis.state.la.us
Senator Robert Kostelka - kostelka@legis.state.la.us
Senator Mike Michot - lasen23@legis.state.la.us
Senator Edwin Murray - murraye@legis.state.la.us

Also, Senate bills 301 and 330 by Senate President Chaisson will be heard on the House floor on Tuesday. Please contact your state house member and urge their votes FOR these important civil liability protections. The list of state house members may be found at www.legis.state.la.us.

Thanks once again to all supporters and donors for making the success of these bills possible!

June 2, 2008

Medical Criminal Liability Bill Passes State House

House Bill 1379 by Speaker Jim Tucker passed the state house late last week by a vote of 102-0, providing needed criminal protections for medical professionals serving in times of declared emergencies.

The legislation allows for the establishment of a 3-member medical review panel to study medical evidence presented by the state's Attorney General or a District Attorney and provide a recommendation to that law enforcement official prior to any arrest or formal charges if the alleged incident occurred during times of a declared emergency in the "emergency cone".

The bill now moves to the state senate where a vote is expected the week of June 9th.

Many thanks to all who assisted and continue to support the efforts of the Committee for Disaster Medicine Reform.