Sheri Fink - Five Days at Memorial

40 Baltz searched his memory : Baltz, Horace. The Kat’s Paw : Memorial Medical Center—Katrina (unpublished manuscript), and interviews with the author.

41 death of one of his longtime patients : Baltz disagreed entirely with Kokemor’s assessment of his motivation for seeking the truth about his patient’s death.

42 She had promised : Chatelain’s husband, Alfred Lee Moses, and daughter, Catherine Chatelain, attributed her increasing use of alcohol and narcotics—resulting in the loss of her nursing license, and her untimely death in her early fifties from acute pancreatitis—to her distress over the circumstances of her patient Emmett Everett’s death. “I think that’s the major reason my mom isn’t here today, because she just spiraled into depression after that,” Catherine Chatelain said in an interview in 2013.

43 one of the investigators researched : She shared these articles with her colleagues: Perkin, R. M. and D. B. Resnik, “The Agony of Agonal Respiration: Is the Last Gasp Necessary?,” Journal of Medical Ethics , 28 (2002): 164–169, retrieved by the investigator on November 28, 2005, from http://jme.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/28/3/164; Whonamedit? A Dictionary of Medical Eponyms , “Cheyne-Stokes Respiration,” retrieved by investigator November 29, 2005, from http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/1159.html; “Central Sleep Apnea: Details,” retrieved by investigator on November 29, 2005, from www.apneos.com/csa.html.

44 “Given our current knowledge” : Perkin and Resnik, ibid.

45 the buildings were full […] escorted away drunks : Building entry logs and security notes as well as author’s April 21, 2008, interview with a DynCorp company official who said the group’s first mission had been “to provide assistance to any survivors that may have been left behind or inadvertently may have been unable to be evacuated” from Tenet’s hospitals. One mystifying incident the DynCorp team was asked about by Tenet concerned media reports of a suspicious body seen by San Diego National Guardsmen and a news crew at Memorial. The incident is partially described in Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge : Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (New York: Harper Perennial, 2007), p. 606. Brinkley wrote that freelance reporters for NBC followed the sounds of a radio tuned to WWL to a room where they found a woman was dead, covered in blood. NBC kindly provided a screening copy of Anthony Zumbado’s footage to the author, but it shows only one body, on a gurney with no blood, partially covered by a sheet; attorneys for the family of Leon Preston later identified this body to the author as Mr. Preston, the named plaintiff in Preston, et al v. Tenet . The author spoke with Anthony Zumbado, the videographer, but he was unable to provide more details. The Guardsmen apparently alleged the woman had been sexually abused, but did not offer how they ascertained this. The DynCorp company official interviewed by the author said that while his team also saw bodies in the emergency room, they were covered and “we didn’t see anything abnormal about the way they were resting, so to speak.” He pointed out, reasonably, that to ascertain sexual assault would have involved an invasive examination; it is hard to imagine the National Guardsmen conducted one when they walked through the hospital. A possible case of sexual violence came to light at a settlement hearing in the Preston, et al v. Tenet class action case. A former patient alleged that a hospital orderly had assaulted her in her room. Her attorney, Anthony Irpino, told the author that the judge granted her request for more funds.

46 Pou toured Memorial : Security guard log notes document where the group was escorted. Sign-in sheets for that day include signatures of most parties. Interestingly, Dr. Pou and Mr. Simmons did not sign the sign-in sheets, but the group is referred to as the “doctor’s” group and several others who were there recalled Pou and Simmons as having been there that day. Simmons went to court to ensure that the pieces of equipment described here be preserved.

47 “Tonight, a CNN exclusive” : “New Orleans Hospital Murders?,” CNN, Anderson Cooper 360° , December 21, 2005, ten p.m.; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/21/acd.01.html. Other versions aired earlier and later.

48 “terrorized” : Dr. Pou interview with author July 23, 2008.

49 James O’Bryant : The details of Mr. O’Bryant’s medical history and Dr. Pou’s treatment of him described throughout this chapter were provided by his wife, Brenda, and daughter, Tabatha, in interviews in 2007 and 2013 and, with their kind permission, by Dr. Daniel Nuss in interviews in 2007. Also consulted for background on James’s condition: Watkinson, John C. and Ralph W. Gilbert. Stell and Maran’s Textbook of Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology , 5th ed., (London: Hodder Arnold, 2012).

50 respected textbook : Randall C. Baselt. Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man , 6th ed., (Foster City, CA: Biomedical Publications, 2002). More recent editions exist, but the investigators relied on this one.

51 They had not gathered : The investigators believed that another surgical ICU nurse had also gone up to the seventh floor when Pou was there. She did not agree to be interviewed for this book.

52 USA Today quoted : Johnson, Kevin, “Post-Katrina Inquiry Likely to Need New Expert,” USA Today , January 23, 2006. All charges were ultimately dismissed in 2009. For a delightful description of the coroner, see also See Kalson, Sally, “The Wecht Indictment,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , July 20, 2009; http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/sally-kalson/the-wecht-indictment-494225/: “His rulings, feuds and polysyllabic speechifying were always good news copy, and his bombastic letters in response to perceived slights were legendary […] without him in the medical examiner’s office the local scene seems kind of pale.”

53 Years later in an interview : Dr. John Skinner interview with author, May 3, 2013.

54 interviewees intimated : For example, Terence Stahelin interview with investigators November 9, 2005: “I don’t believe that decision was made by any of our doctors.” Also Dr. Pou, in her interview with Julie Scelfo ( Newsweek , September 2, 2007), said, when asked who appointed her to inject patients: “It was a group decision. I didn’t really volunteer for anything.”

55 whether Tenet corporate officials might have been aware : Tenet Healthcare Corporation provided the following written response to the author on August 18, 2009: “This allegation is false. No evidence exists to support this claim. It is unfortunate that these unsubstantiated allegations continue to obscure the heroism and dedication of the doctors and staff in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the breach of the levees.”

56 paid nearly $400 million to settle claims : “Tenet Healthcare Agrees to $395 Million Settlement of Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged Unnecessary Heart Surgeries,” California Healthline , December 22, 2004; http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2004/12/22/tenet-healthcare-agrees-to-395-million-settlement-of-lawsuit-filed-over-alleged-unnecessary-heart-surgeries.aspx.

57 “Tenet is a major health-care provider” : Shields, Gerard, “Shareholders ask Landrieu to Give up Tenet Contributions,” The Advocate , March 18, 2006, A23.

58 “I don’t know what God’s will is” : Kahn, Carrie, “New Orleans Hospital Staff Discussed Mercy Killings,” National Public Radio, All Things Considered , February 16, 2006.