US: The Louisiana attorney general is investigating whether staff at a New Orleans hospital may have "mercy killed" frail patients in the days after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city and conditions in the facility deteriorated.
The agency is focusing on the actions of physicians and administrators at Memorial Medical Center, but is also looking at 13 nursing homes and five other hospitals as part of a larger inquiry, a spokeswoman for attorney general Charles Foti said yesterday.
Rumours of euthanasia have repeatedly surfaced since Katrina struck the city on August 29th and left the facilities without water and power for days afterwards, said Mr Foti's spokeswoman Kris Wartelle.
Witnesses have said conditions at Memorial Medical quickly deteriorated as temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) inside the building and the sanitation system broke down.
The inquiry has been stepped up since CNN reported on Thursday that a doctor at Memorial Medical said discussions on euthanasia had taken place there, although he never saw it performed.
"We have heard the reports," Ms Wartelle said. "It's become a very serious investigation of that facility."
Dr Bryant King told CNN that a few doctors and hospital administrators debated the issue as they tried to evacuate nearly 2,000 patients and family members from the facility in the three days following the storm. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The attorney general has ordered autopsies on 45 bodies removed from the hospital after the storm.
Hospital officials say they have been co-operating with the state's investigation. The centre's chief of anesthesiology said at no time was euthanasia considered by the facility's management team. - (Reuters)