Feature Story
The Deadly Choices at Memorial
by Sheri Fink, ProPublica - August 27, 2009 10:00 am EDT
The floodwaters from Katrina had knocked out the power. Doctors and nurses were overstretched and overtired, patients were dying and the evacuation of many of the sickest seemed impossible. Injecting drugs was one answer that some members of the medical staff decided on. Were they trying to comfort those patients – or hasten their deaths. Read More ...
Video
What It Means Today
Sheri Fink talks with Bruce Shapiro of the Dart Center about the impact and importance of the events at Memorial Medical Center.
Watch the full interview at dartcenter.org
Major Stories
New Orleans Coroner Rules Post-Katrina Death ‘Unclassified’
by Sheri Fink, Special to ProPublica - March 11, 2010 1:44 pm EDT
A New Orleans coroner says he can't determine what killed a 79-year-old woman who died at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina. Though the patient had been given lots of morphine, "she had a lot of physiologic reasons to die," the coroner said. The ruling makes it highly unlikely that any charges will be brought in the case.