1. The final count of patient death at the memorial hospital was compared to the other healthcare facilities as the largest number of bodies found at any Katrina-struck hospital or Nursing home. “It was like a picture of hell.”
2. The Tenet attorney demonstrates no wrongdoing by responding to the phoned-in question defensively, by requesting them in writing. He faxed a corporate summary of events, copies of newspaper articles highlighting the heroism of the memorial’s employee, and a set of press releases blaming the death on forces beyond the hospital’s control.
3. The Tenet telephone operators took down messages from dozens of frantic families and entered a database. If a patient relative somehow reached the medical officer directly, he told them what he knew which was how the families were informed about the death of their loved ones.
The buses leased by Tenet weren’t bad, they drove to Dallas, where the company had reserved and paid for rooms at the upscale Anatole Hotel, complete with toiletry amenity packs, free food vouchers, and assistance reuniting with loved ones and the patient’s lucky enough to be evacuated via-Tenet hired helicopters were taken to the nearby Tenet hospital also received meals and showers there and could take advantage of the arrangement.
4. The investigators learned from the family members of the deceased, after a difficult search, their death had surprised their family because the patients had been extremely strong, they were not in pain or anxious and they learned a volunteer coroner from Wisconsin had told Nelson an autopsy had been performed on her mother because euthanasia was suspected. They realized they need more than eyewitness testimony and empty morphine vials to prove a crime.
From the autopsy, they found out Wisconsin coroner Nelson had spoken with had been right about the autopsy, the investigators learned euthanasia was suspected, and the patients had died with detectable levels of morphine and other sedative drugs in their bodies.
Midazolam was important to the case because it was detected as other sedative drugs in their bodies, and not a compound that people are routinely put on. It’s a compound generally used in operating suites or when someone is going to be intubated but not one of these compounds that someone gets a prescription for at home. It shouldn’t be given on a repetitive basis, there would be no reason for somebody to accumulate midazolam over a period of time and all this was detected in their bodies.
Morphine was important to the case because the investigators found out nine were positive for morphine and some of the concentrations of morphine that were found are pretty darn high.
5. Butch Schafer “Don’t. Get. Emotionally. Involved,” he warned Virginia Rider as uplifting as it was to gather the evidence needed to pursue justice, much remained ahead of them, he knew from experience that even the most promising new case us usually doesn’t end up the way you think it might,