Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

An assistant attorney general with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the state’s lead prosecutor in the Memorial case, Schafer wants Dr. Pou arrested. However, unlike his associate, Special Agent Virginia Rider, he is pragmatic about the uphill battle they face in convincing a jury to indict Pou.

Special agent Rider works for the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit; she is dedicated and hard driven. She believes in the case she and Butch Schafer have built against Anna Pou and is heartbroken when the grand jury refuses to indict the doctor.

Anna Pou’s defense attorney, Simmons orchestrates a successful publicity campaign to win the public to her side, while he works hard behind the scenes to influence events. His efforts bear fruit, and Dr. Pou is exonerated and all evidence against her is quashed.

Elderly and old-school, Orleans Parish coroner Minyard believes a criminal case against Dr. Pou will tear New Orleans society apart. He wrestles with his conscience, believing Pou’s actions at Memorial may well amount to euthanasia, and therefore homicide, but he can’t bring himself to say as much to the grand jury. This proves critical to the jury’s decision not to indict.

The “nursing director, head of emergency preparedness committee, designated incident commander for Hurricane Katrina” (1), Mulderick, 54, has worked at Memorial for 32 years and has “a tough, no-nonsense manner that intimidated some employees. She was known as calm and cool, even cold, under pressure” (55). Mulderick’s words and actions during the fifth day of the emergency raise suspicions about her possible participation in the alleged homicides, but nothing sticks.

Memorial ICU intensive care nurse “Queen of the Night Shift” (9) Landry is implicated as a co-conspirator with Dr. Pou in the deaths of numerous critical patients at Memorial hospital during the disaster. She and another Memorial ICU surgical nurse, Lori Budo, are arrested but never indicted.

Age 71, Dr. Baltz has worked at Memorial for over 40 years. Baltz objects to the idea that euthanasia should be allowed as an option during an emergency. He calls a fundraiser for Dr. Pou and the nurses a “euthanasia rally” (429).

Dr. Thiele is a critical care and lung specialist who euthanizes some of the pets sheltered at Memorial, then quietly back’s Dr. Pou’s decision to euthanize a number of critical patients during the Katrina emergency. He may also have participated in the killings

Everett is a patient at LifeCare who is evacuated to Memorial ahead of Katrina’s landfall. He weighs 380 pounds and is a paraplegic with continence issues. Awake and lively on his last day at Memorial, Everett asks, of evacuation plans: “So are we ready to rock and roll?” (308). Hours later he is dead, apparently drugged by Dr. Pou because he is too heavy to carry to a helicopter.