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Coroners: Tests being run on as many of 100 patients in euthanasia probe |
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NEW ORLEANS Tests for lethal doses of drugs such as morphine are being done on as many as 100 patients who died during Hurricane Katrina and who investigators fear may have been euthanized.
Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard, who's conducting Katrina-related autopsies, said today that samples from between "75 and 100 people" who were patients at various hospitals and nursing homes have been sent to a lab in Philadelphia for toxicology testing. At least 140 patients at New Orleans-area hospitals and nursing homes died during the storm and its aftermath. Two owners of a nursing home in Saint Bernard Parish were charged in September with 34 counts of negligent homicide for flood deaths at that facility. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti's office has subpoenaed 73 people -- all hospital employees -- in a probe into whether euthanasia caused deaths at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. The toxicology tests are part of that investigation. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Source |
