[MilCom] Re: MilCom Digest, Vol 17, Issue 31

[PalladinMe at aol.com]

While this is off topic, I find it appalling...
Did anyone hear any type of Comms to verify if this really  happened..???
An article from "NewsMax" that I received...
"Euthanasia  In Louisiana"
 
Doctors: Hurricane Katrina Forced Us to Kill Patients  
NewsMax.com
Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 
Doctors working in  hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill 
patients rather than leave  them behind to die in agony as they evacuated 
hospitals, according to a shocking  report in the respected British newspaper the Daily 
Mail.
One emergency  official who spoke on the record, William "Forest" McQueen, 
told the Mail:  "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of 
morphine and lain down  in a dark place to die." 
McQueen, a utility manager for the town of Abita  Springs near New Orleans, 
told relatives that patients had been "put down,"  saying medical personnel 
"injected them, but nurses stayed with them until they  died." 
The Mail did not name the other members of the medical staff  interviewed by 
the newspaper in order to protect their identities. Euthanasia is  illegal in 
Louisiana. 
One doctor said: "I didn't know if I was doing the  right thing. But I did 
not have time. I had to make snap decisions, under the  most appalling 
circumstances, and I did what I thought was right. 
"I  injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony. If the 
first  dose was not enough, I gave a double dose. And at night I prayed to 
God to have  mercy on my soul. 
"This was not murder. This was compassion. I had cancer  patients who were in 
agony." 
The doctor said medical staffers divided  patients into three categories: 
those who were medically fit enough to survive,  those who needed urgent care, 
and the dying, the Mail reported. 
"It came  down to giving people the basic human right to die with dignity," 
said the  doctor. 
"There were patients with ‘Do Not Resuscitate' signs. Under normal  
circumstances, some could have lasted several days. But when the power went out,  we 
had nothing. 
"Some of the very sick became distressed. We tried to make  them as 
comfortable as possible. 
"You have to understand, these people were  going to die anyway." According 
to the Mail, the confessions of the medical  staff "are an indictment of the 
appalling failure of American authorities to  help those in desperate need after 
Hurricane Katrina flooded the  city."

Can anyone verify this from Milcom or other transmissions heard???
 
Regards to the group..
Fred KB1JDL
Northford, CT