New Orleans Doctor Accused Post-Katrina Wants New Disaster Laws

Dr. Anna Pou — the cancer surgeon charged with murder after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans — and her attorney are spearheading three bills in the Louisiana Legislature aimed at protecting medical personnel in future disasters.

“What happened to Dr. Pou will obviously have a dampening effect of volunteering by doctors during future emergencies if they don’t have some guarantees that their medical judgment will not be second-guessed,” attorney Rick Simmons said. “You need to give the people who will be important to care during a crisis the assurances that they aren’t leaving themselves open to unnecessary problems down the road.”

The bills, which have already passed the Senate, would take several steps to protect those caring for disaster victims from both lawsuits and prosecution because of judgments made during a crisis.

A key part of one bill would require a “Disaster Medicine Panel Review” if someone challenges medical workers’ actions during disasters.

The three-member panel would include the coroner as chairman of the panel, a doctor and a third person with expertise in disaster medicine appointed by the governor.

Simmons described the bill as containing a “strong statement of legislative intent that would help avoid ‘runaway prosecution.”‘

After the August 2005 hurricane, then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti conducted a criminal investigation of deaths at Memorial Medical Center. It led to the arrests of Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, who stayed to work at the flooded hospital while the city was being evacuated.

A grand jury refused to indict Pou. Landry and Budo testified before the panel under immunity and were not indicted.

All three women denied the accusations.

Three civil lawsuits against Pou are still pending.

Setting up a medical panel allows input from the physician and ensures that scientifically reliable information is used to decide whether actions were appropriate, Simmons said.

The bills will go before the full house on May 19.

Foti had accused Pou and the nurses of killing patients by overdosing them with a sedative-painkiller mix during the days after Katrina, when the hospital had no power and no way to evacuate.

At the time of the arrests, Foti called the trio’s actions murder and accused the doctor and nurses of “playing God.”

Foti was widely criticized for his investigations of patient deaths at the hospital and a St. Bernard Parish nursing home. He later lost his bid for re-election.