Nurse Follies: The Scapegoats

In what could possibly be the biggest load of bullshit I have heard this week, two nurses and a doctor have been arrested for murdering patients in a New Orleans hospital during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In talking with other nurses, I have come to understand that working in a New Orleans hospital at that time made Hell look like an all-inclusive vacation resort. No water. No power. No supplies. No support. I cannot fathom what it must have been like, being cooped up in that hospital, with sick people all around you, not having the tools you need to make them well, all the while wondering why no one is coming to help.

You could argue that these people should not have played God. But you weren't there. You don't know what it was like. I don't know what it was like...and I shudder when I try to imagine it. I've heard from nurses who were there, who will be haunted by the very experience until the day they die.

While I am confident that there were a lot of healthcare staff that had a hand in this. On a normal day, I'm sure if some doctor approached with syringes full of Lordknowswhat, saying to just give them to the sickest and dying patients, I'm sure the nurses would have told that doctor where to go. However, this was not a normal day. This was an unprecedented disaster, staff were not even certain they would live through it, much less the patients.

I cannot begin to convey how bad it was because I wasn't there, so I will encourage you to read this online journal of a nurse who was right in the thick of it. (click the ~next~ at the top of the page to navigate pages)

Why are they going after the healthcare staff? The ones who stayed behind rather than abandon their patients. Why isn't anyone holding the corrupt government of Louisiana accountable? In my personal and professional opinion, the doctors and nurses are being used as scapegoats, to deviate from the truth that the government abandoned it's own people, even when the doctors and nurses refused to.

It's all so disgusting, I plan on emailing the the asshole Louisiana Attorney General. My email should follow the thousands of emails sent by other nurses. God help him.