re: 5 Days at Memorial Dr. Anna Pou

I have good friend, whom I trust, that was at Memorial the entire time. His wife was an administrator and he went with her when she was called in for the emergency. The conditions were truly horrific.

One thing many people don't realize is that the upper floors of the hospital were leased out to another medical company who provided end of life hospice care to patients. This was the last stop for these patients, regardless of the circumstances.

The hospice company assigned a doctor and a few, mainly new, nurses to the emergency team. When things got bad, the doctor got on the first boat leaving the facility and abandoned his patients and staff. (My friend saw him leave like a coward.)

The hospital staff, and their families, worked heroically for the next 2-3 days to get patients out of the hospital and to keep them as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately, some of the hospice patients did not survive.

My friend spent his time ferrying patients on gurneys up to the heliport to be airlifted away. He says he was the last person from the facility to leave.

As to euthanizing, he said that many of the staff brought their pets with them to the hospital when they reported for the emergency. They were not allowed to take them on the helicopters, so they asked the doctors to euthanize their pets rather than leave them to starve etc.