Sheri Fink - Five Days at Memorial

27 Two of Pou’s siblings spoke with CNN : Griffin, Drew and Kathleen Johnston, “Siblings Defend Doctor Accused in Hospital Deaths,” CNN, July 20, 2006; http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/20/hospital.deaths.

28 After the arrests, the lawyer for Dr. Ewing Cook : Interviews with Dr. Cook (2007–2009).

29 When senior internist Dr. Horace Baltz : Baltz, Horace. The Kat’s Paw : Memorial Medical Center—Katrina (unpublished manuscript), and interviews with the author.

30 he wrote in an appeal : “Heroic in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina,” blog, July 24, 2006; http://rauterkus.blogspot.com/2006/07/heroic-in-wake-of-katrinia-and-fallout.html.

31 believed he should use his position : “Daniel Nuss, MD—Supervisor of Katrina Doctor Anna Pou, MD,” October 28, 2007, dailyinterview.net. “I decided that as chairman of my university department, in contact with so many alumni and supportive physicians, I should use my position to build support for her.” Nuss said in the same interview that he was “admonished by the leadership of the school that it was not appropriate for me to administer this defense fund because of my responsibilities to the University,” and that Dr. Pou’s brother Michael, a banker, took over the fund at that point.

32 they had collected about $30,000 : Zigmond, Jessica, “Accused Doc Gets Defense Fund,” Modern Healthcare , vol. 36, issue 30 (July 31, 2006): 4.

33 had spent Katrina volunteering : Hillyer, Quin, “Post-Katrina Heroes,” American Spectator , August 30, 2006; http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/30/post-katrina-heroes/.

34 “Control!” : Miller, Virginia, “Crisis Communications: Planning, Training and Response,” PowerPoint presentation, Greater New Orleans Business Roundtable, February 24, 2011.

35 the company was covering their legal expenses : According to Harry Anderson, Tenet spokesperson, quoted in Zigmond, Jessica, “Accused Doc Gets Defense Fund.”

36 released a statement : Tenet Healthcare Corporation, “Tenet Response to Action by Louisiana Attorney General.” (Dallas, TX, July 18, 2006); http://www.tenethealth.com/News/Documents/2006%20Press%20Releases/Tenet%20Response%20to%20Action%20by%20Louisiana%20Attorney%20General.pdf.

37 it would be selling Memorial : “Ochsner to Buy 3 N.O. Hospitals,” The Advocate , July 19, 2006; “Tenet Agrees to Sell Three New Orleans Hospitals to Ochsner Health System,” Business Wire , July 18, 2006; “Tenet Selling Three Hospitals,” Dallas Morning News , July 18, 2006; “Tenet in $900 Million Settlement,” The Associated Press /New York Times , June 30, 2006. The purchase price was revealed later.

38 help fund a nearly billion-dollar settlement : As Tenet made its agreement to settle Medicare fraud charges, LifeCare Holdings, Inc., was cleaning up a much smaller reimbursement issue with the government in an unrelated matter. In June, 2006 the company entered into a Compliance Agreement with HHS’s Office of the Inspector General as part of a roughly $2.6 million settlement agreement related to the way its prior owners calculated annual costs, resulting in Medicare overpayments.

39 ICU nurse Cathy Green […] ‘You did the wrong thing,’ ever.” : Interview with Cathy Green (February 26, 2007). Mr. Castaing confirmed her recollection of their meeting.

40 a three-day meeting : Description of the meeting and its findings were based on: interviews with Dr. Wecht, Dr. Baden, Dr. Middleberg, Michael Morales, and Dr. Minyard; Dr. Wecht’s handwritten notes of the meeting; forensic charts and tables distributed at the meeting; toxicology reports prepared by National Medical Services, Inc., for each of the forty-one bodies tested; autopsy reports and death certificates for each of the patients. Dr. Wecht also included an account of the meeting in his book, Wecht, Cyril H. and Dawna Kaufmann. A Question of Murder (New York: Prometheus Books, 2008), pp. 283–285.

41 correspondence from one of its attorneys : Copy of letter from Glen R. Petersen to Louisiana Department of Justice, dated March 17, 2006.

42 fighting a federal judgment : See, for example, Filosa, Gwen, “Jordan: N.O. Needs to Bail Out DA,” Times-Picayune , October 23, 2007; http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/10/jordan_no_needs_to_bail_out_da.html.

43 Jordan was caught : Eddie Jordan did not respond to requests for an interview.

44 “locked and loaded” : “Military Due to Move in to New Orleans,” CNN, September 2, 2005.

45 was under investigation : See, for example, the excellent video encapsulation: “Behind the Danziger Bridge Shooting,” PBS, Frontline , June 28, 2011, screened at: http://video.pbs.org/video/2029672776/, part of a multiyear investigative journalism collaboration between ProPublica, the Times-Picayune , and Frontline on police violence after Katrina. More of the project, led by journalists A. C. Thompson, Tom Jennings, Gordon Russell, Brendan McCarthy, and Laura Maggi, can be found at ProPublica’s “Law and Disorder” page: http://www.propublica.org/nola/case/topic/case-one.

46 Morales drafted a letter : Letter quoted in Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston, “Report Probes New Orleans Hospital Deaths,” CNN, December 5, 2007. Additional context provided in interviews with Michael Morales.

47 five-part Times-Picayune “tick tock” : Meitrodt, “For Dear Life.”

48 Baltz met again […] small congregation : Baltz, The Kat’s Paw , and interviews with the author. Mr. Dosch (interview, June 4, 2013) said he was “probably just deep in thought” and that if Baltz was not invited, it was unintentional.

49 lawyers filed petitions : See, for example: Mitchell, Jeffrey A., “A Guide to Medical Malpractice: An Overview of Louisiana Law,” Avvo ; http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/a-guide-to-medical-malpractice-an-overview-of-louisiana-law-1. Additional information provided in interviews with Lorraine LeBlanc, executive director, the Louisiana Patient’s Compensation Fund, and Dianna A. Schenk (with the Louisiana Division of Administration) in 2007 and 2008. According to LeBlanc, as of June 12, 2007, 196 medical malpractice claims had been filed with the PCF against private hospitals and nursing homes alone (a separate system existed for publically owned health facilities).

50 soliciting potential clients : Tammie Holley e-mail to attorneys involved in Preston, et al v. Tenet (April 20, 2008). Another of her e-mails reads: “I am a GREAT rainmaker. The clients love me […] I am a natural at both advertising AND marketing. Marketing harms plaintiff lawyer’s reputations to a degree. I could care less,” sent February 28, 2008, subject: “future cases %,” exhibit nineteen in motion for summary judgment by Best Koeppel law firm, Preston, et al v. Tenet , February 2013. The e-mails came to light in the course of legal action involving the division of funds between attorneys in the class action settlement.

51 The first suit related to Memorial : Exhibits in Preston, et al v. Tenet 2:06-cv-03179-EEEF-KWR, available on PACER. For a summary of the movements of the case between state and federal court, see: “Local Controversy and Home State Exceptions in the Class Action Fairness Act Sent this Hurricane Katrina Case Back to State Court,” CAFA Law Blog , January 24, 2007.

52 described in her suit : “Petition for Damages,” Karen Lagasse, individual, and on behalf of her deceased mother, Merle Lagasse v. Tenet Healthsystem Memorial Medical Center, Inc., René Goux, Roy J. Culotta, Richard Deichmann, and Jane Doe , Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, case no. 06-8505, August 25, 2006.