[Stephanie Goddu]

1. The decision to use ambu-bags for the oxygen dependent patients, to airlift the NICU infants and to deliver the most critically I’ll patients through a hole in the wall were all examples of how the hospital staff kept patients alive. One decision that resulted in death of patients was to have to stop receiving helicopter rides to pick up and deliver patients. The staff were fatigued and needed to rest which resulted in deaths of patients.
2. The man was a white man dressed in army fatigues. It seems as though he was on the boat and asking for rescue was used a distraction for other people to loot while he did that. Pets were brought into the hospital because their owners were seeking shelter and some of the hospital staff did not want to leave their pets alone at home where they could starve or drown. The cloverleaf was important because it was the site where the rescue helicopters were bringing patients from Memorial hospital .
3. I think Mark Leblanc definitely had the point of view of that of a bystander. He cannot understand what the past 48 hours was like at the hospital for the nursing staff and the patients because he was not there. As a bystander or someone from the outside, Mark cannot truly understand that his mother was in the condition she was in when he saw her at his arrival to the hospital. His mother was not in the wet bed or left very thirsty becuase the staff was neglectful. It was truly because of the emergent conditions that did not allow the medical staff the time to spend with her like she needed. Critical patient’s needs came first which basically could be considered life or death.
4. I do not believe they evacuation priority system follows triage practices. I think the nurses followed a utilitarian process by using a number system to prioritize evacuation by patient medical status. The thought behind this process is to do the best they could for the largest amount of people. I believe the utilitarian approach is best in this type of crisis. By following triage practices in this type of situation, sadly lives will be still be lost. There’s no perfect way to prioritize human life. Organ sharing is a difficult ethical decision to make by a medical professional. There is a want to give priority to a person who would be considered to have a higher chance of survival than another. Doctors have to make a decision based off of science and statistics because there’s no definite way to know how a person will react to medical procedures. Nothing is guaranteed in this life and doctors can only make their best choice based on their medical opinions and education.

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