30 August 2009

Tragic Triage ~ Tough Calls During Katrina...

Kudos to the NYTimes for choosing to publish the troubling piece Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices by Sheri Fink...
"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?"
The subtleties and various dimensions of this tragic emergency experience -- a direct consequence of governmental and civic incompetence and exacerbated by political idiocy -- can't be easily summarized. And the pontifications of "bioethicists" are not helpful here either. I most strongly recommend reading the full story and drawing personal conclusions.

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