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Dr. Anna Pou is an associate professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. In addition to her clinical expertise, Pou has authored many papers concerning cancer of the head and neck and has been an active teacher of medical students and residents.

On Tuesday, 2006-07-18, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti arrested Pou (along with two nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo), accused of being "a principal to second-degree murder" in the deaths of four patients at Memorial Medical Center on 1 September 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana in the days following Hurricane Katrina.

The affidavit says Pou and the nurses "intentionally (killed)" Emmett Everett Sr., 61; Hollis Alford, 66; Ireatha Watson, 89; and Rose Savoie, 90, by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulphate (morphine) and/or midazolam (Versed)." Conditions at Memorial were difficult following the hurricane: The hospital's ground floor was inundated with 10 feet of floodwater. Patients were threatened by not only their existing illness, but also suffocating heat and dehydration. Without backup power, temperatures reached 110 degrees, and at least 34 patients died, including some critically ill patients. Doctors could hear gunshots in the vicinity of the hospital, but despite the danger to their patients officials told the doctors that evacuating Memorial was not as high a priority as evacuating citizens stranded on rooftops.

The Lifecare Patients

The patients whom Dr. Pou and the nurses were accused of killing were patients of a company called Lifecare which ran an acute care facility for the extremely ill. Dr. Pou and other medical staff were caring for these patients after the doctor assigned to care for them did not appear.

The investigation apparently began after Dr. Bryant King, a physician working at Memorial following the hurricane, charged publicly that one or more health care workers had killed patients. King told CNN that when he believed, based on conversations among other health care workers, that a doctor was about to kill patients, he boarded a boat and left the hospital. King attempted to explain his own actions in terms of his opposition to Pou's alleged actions, arguing "I`d rather be considered a person who abandoned patients than someone who aided in eliminating patients."

Coroner's Report, Grand Jury

In February 2007, seven months after Dr. Pou's arrest, the case against her and the two nurses appeared more questionable after the Orleans Parish Coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, announced that he had classified the patient deaths at Memorial as "undetermined," which means that on available evidence he cannot classify the deaths as due to homicide or natural causes. Minyard told the media that he had retained some of the nation's leading experts as consultants in the case.

Nonetheless, the coroner's determination does not bar the district attorney from seeking an indictment, and in mid-February 2007, District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office proceeded with plans to impanel a grand jury to investigate the deaths at Memorial. Jordan's office stated that rather than using the grand jury in a perfunctory manner, as is usual in modern practice, it planned to use the grand jury as an active investigative tool and subpoena witnesses. Jordan's office declined to provide information on the grand jury's schedule or how long it expected the investigation to take.

The grand jury was sworn in on 6 March 2007, and prosecutors took the unusual step of having its meetings at an undisclosed location (i.e. away from the courthouse), in order to prevent the media from observing the identity of witnesses coming and going. The grand jury was selected to deal solely with the Memorial case, rather than the dozens to hundreds grand juries normally hear; and prosecutors stated it could hear testimony for months. The unusual moves prompted legal observers to speculate the district attorney considered the evidence ambiguous and wanted to be able to assure the public of a thorough investigation if he decided to drop the case without bringing formal charges. Loyola University Law Professor Dane Ciolono told the media, "Doing it this way certainly speaks to the ambiguity of the evidence and the prosecutor's deliberation as to whether to seek an indictment. . . . Or it could be that he's made up his mind that he doesn't want to bring charges and wants the grand jury to provide his cover."

The grand jury proceedings were far from rushed: near the end of March 2007, Pou's attorney Rick Simmons told the media that a decision on indictments could take until the end of April. Both sides were involved in extensive investigations: Simmons himself planned to interview a grand total of about 2,000 people in the case.

If indicted, the defendants would have faced the possibility of life in prison, or even the death penalty: In Louisiana, second degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. First degree murder, which under Louisiana law is a killing when the offender has specific intent to kill more than one person (and thus could apply in the Pou case since the accused allegedly killed four people), or a murder of a victim over age 65, carries a sentence of either death, or life in prison without parole.

On July 24th, 2007 it was announced that a Louisiana grand jury declined to indict Dr. Ana Pou.

References

1. Rukmini Callimachi 3 Arrested in New Orleans Hospital Deaths Associated Press July 182006
2. James Varney Doctor's drug mix not ideal killer: Evidence in Memorial case called unreliableTimes-Picayune August 062006
3. ^ Morley Safer (24 September 2006). "Katrina Doc Denies Mercy Killings". 60 Minutes.
4. "Memorial Evidence To Be Reviewed," Times-Picayune, 16 February 2007
5. Kathleen Johnston (13 October 2005). "Staff at New Orleans hospital debated euthanizing patients". CNN.com.
6. CNN.com, Nancy Grace transcripts, 14 October 2005
7. Jeffrey Meitrodt (1 February 2007). "N.O. coroner finds no evidence of homicide". The Times-Picayune.
8. "Grand jury selected for Memorial Medical deaths," KATC-TV, 15 February 2007; "Memorial Evidence To Be Reviewed," Times-Picayune, 16 February 2007
9. "Grand jury starts work in Memorial case," Times-Picayune, 6 March 2007
10. [http://media.www.thenichollsworth.com/media/storage/paper262/news/2007/03/08/News/Grand.Jury.To.Investigate.Hospital.Deaths-2769053.shtml "Grand Jury to investigate hospital deaths," Associated Press, 8 March 2007
11. http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/FREE/70326009/0/FRONTPAGE "Reporter's Notebook: It's Slow, But There Is Progress in New Orleans," Modern Healthcare, 27 March 2007
12. Louisiana second degree murder statute
13. Louisiana first degree murder statute
14. WDSU.com Local News

External links

• Official Bio at LSU
• Support Dr Pou Official Website

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