In the News...
Well, since I just started this blog (and nobody is reading it yet anyway), I'll restrain myself from commenting on the current Lebanese/Israeli/Palestininian/Syrian (and Iranian depending on what you believe) affair right now. I've got good friends from the first two countries, and it hurts to know they are in danger and are probably as we speak working extra shifts in their respective hospitals. As a matter of fact I won't even comment on anything beyond our borders.

So where does that leave us? Hey how about the story yesterday about Anna Pou, M.D., FACS Associate Professor of Head and Neck Surgery who has been indicted along with two nurses for euthanizing patients during the Katrina disaster last year. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13916867/ Maybe the fact that July 18th was a busy newsday, but I haven't seen anyone blog about this story (you'd think the Schiavo folks would have picked up on this...). The question is which was a worse fate slowly suffocating to death in the stifling heat and stench, or going relatively peacefully after an injection of morphine and Ativan? Most of the medical professionals I know, myself included would probably choose the latter if we were DNR (do not resuscitate) and in that situation. Dr. Pou and the two nurses are being portrayed (in the few news outlets that I've read) as some sort of death happy angels, gleefully poking completely healthy, well-fed, and comfortable patients with a lethal coctail (OK so I'm exaggerating a bit). Was it legal? Probably not. Was it ethical? I don't have enough details to make that argument. But these were extenuating circumstances. Triage medicine. 100+ degrees fahrenheit, little or no food, no power, shortage of medicines, no plumbing for 2,000 or so patients, staff, and family after 4 long days, exhausted staff, no information about where these critically ill patients would be transferred...what would you do if you were the doctor? Let them suffer?