Orleans D.A. To Reopen Investigation Of Hospital Deaths
By: RNS
Updated: September 11, 2009
(New Orleans) -- Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says he will reopen an investigation of the deaths of patients stranded at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina.
Doctor Anna Pou was accused by then-state Attorney General Charles Foti of killing patients in the days immediately following the storm, which caused damage and flooding to Memorial Medical Center.
A grand jury declined in 2007 to indict Pou.
But Cannizzaros decision to reopen the investigation comes after an article in one of last months editions of New York Times Magazine quoted doctors as saying they administered morphine to patients who were very sick in order to hasten their deaths.
Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard was quoted as saying four of the nine deaths investigated by the grand jury were homicides.
