"Whether or not there was a homicide and whether or not there is a case that can be brought are different matters." During Katrina However, he explained that he did not plan to prosecute anyone. The following year, Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro testified in the same case that "human beings were killed as a result of actions by doctors" at Memorial after Hurricane Katrina. Pou is probably over," but that new information could lead to a renewed investigation, so the files should remain secret. In 2008, Caldwell testified before the Louisiana Supreme Court in support of the position taken by lawyers for Pou and other doctors and nurses from Memorial, who were fighting to keep the state's investigative records in the case sealed from public view. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, Foti's successor, said, "This is a prosecution that should never have been brought" forward. Įventually, the charges were expunged and the State of Louisiana paid Pou's legal fees. However, a year later a grand jury in Orleans Parish refused to indict Pou on any of the counts. In July 2006, a Louisiana judge found probable cause to order the arrest of Pou and two nurses for second degree murder in the deaths of several of the patients, following a nearly year-long investigation by the office of Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. Out of an estimated 215 bodies found in nursing homes and hospitals in New Orleans, Memorial had the largest number. On September 11, 45 bodies were recovered from Memorial Medical Center, about five of whom had died before the disaster (originally thought to be eleven). On Wednesday, August 31, United States Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt reassured the public that 2,500 patients would be evacuated from hospitals in Orleans Parish, although it wasn't clear at first where they would be moved to. Anna Pou, along with other doctors and nurses, attempted to continue caring for patients. In the aftermath of the storm, while the building had no electricity and went through catastrophic flooding after the levees failed, Dr. Memorial Medical Center was heavily damaged when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, specifically Pearlington, MS on August 29, 2005.
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