‘‘To me, it was a no-brainer, and to this day I don’t feel bad about what I did.”
“I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor,” Cook told ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative organization, in a report to be published Sunday in The New York Times Magazine.
“There’s no question I hastened her demise,” he said. “It was hot, over 100 degrees, four nurses were trapped on the floor caring for her, and we could not get her down,” he told The Associated Press. If the hurricane had not hit, Cook said the dosage still might have been increased.
Cook, who was a senior physician at the hospital when the storm hit, said state investigators who previously looked into the Memorial deaths never interviewed him. (Associated Press)
What do you think about that statement?
The report published in The New York Times Magazine, is now available online and well worth the time to read: Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices
quote..
The smell of death was overpowering the moment a relief worker cracked open one of the hospital chapel’s wooden doors. Inside, more than a dozen bodies lay motionless on low cots and on the ground, shrouded in white sheets. Here, a wisp of gray hair peeked out. There, a knee was flung akimbo. A pallid hand reached across a blue gown.
The following quote may interest you:
Physician Anna Pou, in the four years since Katrina, has helped write and pass three laws in Louisiana that offer immunity to health care professionals from most civil lawsuits — though not in cases of willful misconduct — for their work in future disasters, from hurricanes to terrorist attacks to pandemic influenza. Pou has also been advising state and national medical organizations on disaster preparedness and legal reform; she has lectured on medicine and ethics at national conferences and addressed military medical trainees. In her advocacy, she argues for changing the standards of medical care in emergencies.
"If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness."
And the government can declare a disaster and use it as an excuse to start “euthanising” Christians.
I had no idea this physician, Anna Pou, had been trying to pass laws in the last 4 years, to implement these new ‘relaxed’ regulations…
It really struck me as we’re already being told to prepare for a pandemic influenza outbreak.
Know what it reminded me of? Stephen King’s book, The Stand. I don’t know why exactly, but it did…
hi pj,
this is a disturbing story.
my father had some health issues around March of 2008. the head nurse wanted to put him on hospice care. she insisted that he was in pain even though my father told me and other family members that he was not in pain. to make a long story short i didn’t have a peace about this nor did i understand all the implications of hospice care so i did some research. as a result if fought against the hospice care and was glad i did. my father continued to receive the medical attention that he needed.
my father was not/is not saved and i say what’s the rush to end his life. one day in a burst of faith i just laid hands on him and prayed. he started getting better. in a short time he went from eating pureed food to regular food. he had open blisters all over his legs and other parts of his body from an auto immune disease that he has. in a short time his skin became like baby skin. the nurses said that, and they were talking about his miraculous recovery for weeks after all this happened. the bottom line is that the salvation of the soul has to be priority in these medical situations. when the medical world starts playing God we’re in big trouble. all the glory to Jesus for He knows what to do when we are at a loss.
God was leading you to research, and then heard your prayer for healing to come to your Dad Cathy. God is good…
Yes i agree.
correction … “i fought” not “if fought” sorry about that
Thank you for sharing that story, giannina, and I absolutely agree with you. My Dad was a very hard man his whole life and never wanted to hear any ‘religious’ talk. He was in a nursing home the last five years of his life. He was blind, completely crippled up with arthritis (in his 90′s) so that he was total care. All he really had left was his hearing. It was enough. He died this past January at age 97. Just a few months before, he prayed with one of his grandsons to receive Christ as his Savior. The grandson was passing through the area one day and felt the Lord urging him to go to the nursing home and witness to my father. He obeyed. My father broke down in tears and gave his heart to the Lord. Only God decides when a person’s time to die has come. He took my Dad while he was asleep…he just slipped away to heaven.
That’s a wonderful testimony Wearymom…
God knows those who are his, and even if it takes a lifetime, calls them to himself.
Yes, only he knows.