Sheri Fink - Five Days at Memorial

Interviews

Dr. Horace Baltz; family of Jannie Burgess (Linette Burgess Guidi, Gladys Clark Smith, Bertha Mitchell, Johnny Clark); Tony Carnes; Catherine Chatelain; James Cobb Jr.; Dr. Ewing Cook; Minnie Cook; Curtis Dosch; family of Emmett Everett (Carrie Everett, Emmett Everett Jr.); Linda Gagliano (stepdaughter of John Russell); L. René Goux; Cathy Green; Dr. Robert Hendler; Gina Isbell; Karen Lagasse (daughter of Merle Lagasse); Angela McManus (daughter of Wilda McManus); Therese Mendez; Robert Middleberg; Dr. Helen Miller; Dr. Frank Minyard; LT/O3E Sean Moore; Stephanie Moore; Alfred Lee Moses; Dr. Bong Mui; family of Elaine Nelson (Craig Nelson and Kathryn Nelson); Dr. Daniel W. Nuss; Brenda and Tabatha O’Bryant; Cheri Pizani; Dr. Anna Pou; Michelle Pitre-Ryals; Dr. Christopher Sanford; Douglas Savoie Jr. (grandson of Rose Savoie); Arthur Schafer; Richard T. Simmons Jr.; Dr. John Skinner; Dr. John Thiele; Dr. John Walsh; Dr. Cyril Wecht; Tony Zumbado.

Note : Investigative interviews and other events sourced clearly in the text are generally not noted here.

Notes

1 in exchange for what she thought : Mary Rose Bernard interview with state investigators, June 26, 2006: “I pleaded with Fox News and they said well we will see what we can do to get your family out, if you agree to be interviewed.”

2 “You could have gotten out” : Anita Vogel, correspondent, “Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath,” Fox News Network, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren , September 1, 2005, ten p.m. Also, StoryCorps interview of Pamela Mathews, Edwin Mathews, and Jo Lincks, MBX006447.

3 National Guardsmen from San Diego : Gross, Gregory Alan, “S.D. Guardsmen Find Life, Death in Waters,” San Diego Union Tribune , September 7, 2005; http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/nation/katrina/20050907-9999-1n7guard.html.

4Christianity Today magazine reporter : Tony Carnes’s photograph of Memorial’s chapel was picked up by the New York Times and is not easily forgotten: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/09/18/national/19victimsCA01ready.html.

5 “It was like a picture of hell.” : Chaplain Hy McEnery on CNN, September 16, 2005. an interview with a Baton Rouge television reporter : Aired on WBRZ, September 12, 2005. Portions were later re-aired on CNN.

6 St. Rita’s : For more on St. Rita’s, see: Cobb, James, Jr. Flood of Lies : The St. Rita’s Nursing Home Tragedy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2013); Junod, Tom, “The Loved Ones,” Esquire (September 2006); http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0906NEWORLEANS_216; Mead, Robert A., “St. Rita’s and Lost Causes: Improving Nursing Home Emergency Preparedness,” Marquette Elder’s Advisor (Spring 2006).

7 in an essay for Modern Healthcare: Hirsch, Les, “‘We had to Evacuate Soon,’” Modern Healthcare (September 12, 2005); http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20050912/NEWS/509120323.

8 She left messages on Goux’s cell phone […] she wanted to get her own lawyer before answering : Affidavit of Anna Pou, MD, January 13, 2006, and hearing transcript, “In re: Doctor Anna Maria Pou,” Orleans Parish criminal district court, the Honorable Calvin Johnson, Judge, presiding, January 17, 2006.

9 The network agreed to pay Simmons : Letter from Pou’s attorney to Phelps Gay and Lauren McHugh, “Re: Dr. Anna Pou’s Claim for Reimbursement of Legal Fees.” Attachment A, “Memorandum from Richard T. Simmons Jr. counsel for Dr. Anna Pou,” 4. Documents filed with the Attorney Fee Review Board, Louisiana State Legislature and obtained by author through public records request.

10 One of the first things Simmons did : Pou said that she retained Simmons on September 19, 2005, the date of her initial conversation with Tenet officials, however, in the fee review matter, Simmons told the State of Louisiana that he represented her beginning in October 2005.

11 The US attorney for southeast Louisiana had opened : Investigative memoranda provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Investigator General in response to author’s FOIA request reflect this.

12 “I told you so” : Cobb, Flood of Lies .

13 Ferncrest Manor : Investigative memorandum, Ferncrest Manor Living Center, HHS OIG case 6-05-00497-9, September 17, 2007.

14 mandated evacuations of nursing : According to US Senate, Hurricane Katrina : A Nation Still Unprepared , Chapter 16, p. 248, a draft version of Mayor Nagin’s evacuation order did exempt nursing homes. That was changed on the suggestion of Col. Terry Ebbert, New Orleans’s homeland security and public safety director, who noted their vulnerability.

15 About two-thirds of the affected nursing homes had kept residents in place […] but rescue came too late : Hull, Anne and Doug Struck, “At Nursing Home, Katrina Dealt only the First Blow,” Washington Post , September 23, 2005; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202263.html.

16 at Chateau Living Center : In litigation over deaths at Chateau, representatives of the nursing home asserted that after the private company refused to provide buses, they attempted to hire Greyhound buses for the evacuation, but it was too late because highways were closed and high winds had moved into the area. An earlier HHS OIG investigation memo (September 25, 2006) stated: “There is conflicting evidence as to whether the bus company was notified of the facility’s intent to evacuate in a timely manner, or whether the bus company did not fulfill its obligations to provide transportation in a timely manner.” The investigation was later closed.

17 Lesser charges of manslaughter : Arthur Schafer sworn witness examination, mandamus hearing, John and Jane Does v. Charles Foti, et al , 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, case 558,055, August 28, 2007. Schafer said a decision on what charges might be applicable had not been reached.

18 Lou Ann Savoie Jacob : Nossiter, Adam and Shaila Dewan, “Patient Deaths in New Orleans Bring Arrests,” New York Times , July 19, 2006; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/us/19patients.html. Ms. Savoie Jacob’s recollections are supported by Rose Savoie’s medical records: “Actually doing better” (August, 25, 2005) and “No new medical complaints” (August 27, 2005, the last physician progress note).

19 Kathryn Nelson : Ms. Nelson and her brother Craig’s recollections in interviews with the author were supplemented by a handwritten account of the events she prepared for state investigators, dated October 26, 2006, and her July 8, 2008, deposition in Elaine Nelson, et al v. Memorial Medical Center, et al , Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

20 massive temporary morgue : Described in Wecht, Cyril H. and Dawna Kaufmann. A Question of Murder (New York: Prometheus Books, 2008), pp. 248, 271–2.

21 In an acidic-smelling : Description based on author’s visit in July 2008.

22 Chalmette Medical Center : This brief description of what happened at Chalmette Medical Center is based on the recollections of Dr. Bong Mui in an interview with the author, August 3, 2011, and in a translated partial transcript of his interview in Vietnamese with son Nguyen dated September 10, 2006, for the oral history project “Surviving Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Houston Collection” (AFC 2008/006), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (interview SR05, accession no. SKR-SNU-SR05). Lightly redacted Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigative memoranda on Chalmette Medical Center obtained through a public information request suggest that hospital leaders had decided to keep the hospital open and staffed (not only because ambulances did not return to transfer more patients). Some patients who were transferred out of Chalmette Medical Center prior to the storm were moved to that hospital’s sister campus in the New Orleans area (Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital), which was also subsequently severely disabled by floodwaters and generator failures.