Remembering Hurricane Katrina and Memorial Medical Center

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, New Orleans suffered catastrophic damage. Memorial Medical Center was among the hardest hit, left without power and surrounded by floodwaters after the levees failed.

Inside, Dr. Anna Pou and a team of doctors and nurses struggled to care for patients under increasingly desperate conditions. When recovery efforts reached the hospital on September 11, officials discovered 45 bodies inside.

One year later, Pou and two nurses—Lori Budo and Cheri Landry—were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti alleged that four patients had been injected with lethal doses of morphine and midazolam. Prosecutors argued that the drugs were deliberately administered to prevent patients with little chance of survival from enduring further suffering.

The case centered on patients from the seventh floor, a long-term care unit run by LifeCare Hospitals. Roughly 250 patients had been trapped at Memorial in the aftermath of the storm, and at least 34 died. Of those, 24 deaths occurred in the LifeCare unit—including the four at the heart of the controversy. All suffered from chronic medical conditions.