Disturbing: from WWLTV.com in LA

[Nikki Stone 1]

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

2:20 P.M. - From Weezie Porter: WWL-TV Sales account executive. I evacuated with my family to Nashville. The people we are staying with have a relative in the Chateau Living Center in Kenner 716 Village Road. Their phone is working from time to time 504-464=0604. They report that all of the nurses have left, Only a few aides left there that have been working since Friday. They were supposed to be evacuated by bus but they did not show up. No medications have been given since Sunday,. 4 patients have died.

[Horse with no Name]

1. OMG

There are some nurses who will lose licenses.
Where is the nursing home administrator?

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. I'm looking for further details

....

[ohio_liberal]

2. Oh My God

Most of the staff just abandoned the people living there? Why aren't they being given medications?

[rodeodance]

3. Charity Hosp (250 pts)-very low on H2O was susposed to be evacuated

yesterday also but the Guard did not show up. 2 patients dead so far.

[rodeodance]

4. this was on cnn just now. Also about 1000 people in the hospital, NO water

[rodeodance]

6. in both of these cases--there are too few Nat. Guard to do the resue!

[rodeodance]

9. they mentioned another med. center close by that was not evacuated

either!!

[MildyRules]

5. I was born in Charity Hosp

OMG.

[growlypants]

7. first off, at these nursing homes, the majority of "nurses" are really

LPN's and the majority of these are from another country. I have no doubt that they picked up and left.

[rodeodance]

10. conditions are getting worse all over NO. Fire on Bourbon Street.

[rodeodance]

12. major fire in the French Quater. no fire trucks around.

[1932]

11. Is it their fault that the National Guard didn't show up when they

were supposed to show up.

Everyone is being evacuated.

It's always wonderful when people make personal sacrifices to help the powerless. However, these are just working people who were told to leave by the government and who were told that the government would take care of the people who couldn't follow the evacuation order.

[rodeodance]

14. I am just saying there are too little Nat. Guard available to help evacuat

e.

[Horse with no Name]

17. That's not how it works

In nursing lingo--it is called abandonment.
They will LOSE their licenses for it. Depending on their state board, they may even be held criminally responsible.
You CANNOT leave a patient unattended for even ONE minute without signing over care, even in and especially in an emergency.
Nurses are held to a higher degree of liability for human life than just about any profession. By their OWN.

[1932]

18. Let's not jump to conclusions. You don't know if these people

walked out on their shifts or if they were told not to come into work the next day because there's an evacuation order that applies to everyone and that the National Guard would be evacuating patients.

[Horse with no Name]

22. I'm not jumping to conclusions I am telling YOU how it works

Until there is ANOTHER qualified medical person(or government agency) to HAND your patients over to...by law, you CANNOT leave your patients unattended. The NG didn't show up so custody of the patients was never transferred.
Let me put it in perspective.
If you finish your 12 hour shift and NOBODY has come to replace you, you STAY until someone does. Whether it is 1 hour or 24 hours, you CANNOT leave. Every nurse knows this. It is part of their practice act.
The nurses were gone. That means they abandoned their patients because nobody showed up to relieve them.
That is NOT acceptable practice and it is illegal.

[1932]

24. Then let's limit our outrage

to the ones who worked the last shift.

But still, we don't know the circumstances. If there were a dozen on duty, it may have been that management plus two or three others told them to evacuate themselves because there was little more they could do.

[Horse with no Name]

26. That's where my rage is limited

Several times in my career I have been on both ends.
Some where other nurses couldn't get in and I had to stay and sometimes where I couldn't get in forcing others to stay.
That's how it works. It's common and accepted knowledge.
I promise you--nobody in charge would tell others to go home--not when patients were going to have to be evacuated.
That is a huge job and they needed more people than they started out with.
That's just not how it works.

[Wilber_Stool]

29. Just curious

Did you in fear for the lives of your own family when you stayed over?
License or not, I would probably go home and risk it.

[Horse with no Name]

30. Of course--anyone in that situation does

but I never abandoned a helpless patient and I don't imagine I ever would. I worked on the 11th floor of a hospital in a major city right after 911.
Trust me--I was scared every day, but it didn't stop me from doing my job.
That's why they say nursing is a calling. It isn't for everyone.
Good thing you understand that.

[1932]

25. Then let's limit our outrage

to the ones who worked the last shift.

But still, we don't know the circumstances. If there were a dozen on duty, it may have been that management plus two or three others told them to evacuate themselves because there was little more they could do.

[Horse with no Name]

13. I'm gonna call your bullshit

LPN or RN--both have licenses that are just as valuable to them.
I have worked with an equally amount of great LPN's as I have RN's.
As far as being foreign nurses--again. I'm going to call your bullshit.
Those would be the LAST to leave because that would mean they would lose their licenses and have to go home--some to conditions worse or as bad that they were facing with Hurricane Katrina.
You are talking about just plain mean people without consciences.
You know--we have WHITE, higher educated people that fit that bill too.

[theHandpuppet]

16. Thank you!

I can't believe the B.S. floating around here and what smacks of racism rearing its ugly head.

[VolcanoJen]

27. It's been staggering, hasn't it?

I hardly recognize this place anymore.

[MuseRider]

21. You are correct.

When I was an ICU nurse we moved our critical patients as little as possible because of all the machines they were usually plugged into but during some nasty tornado warnings we would move them away from the windows and shield them as much as possible. I don't think any of us ever thought of leaving them. I can't imagine someone in that field leaving their patients. The few that do or did should loose their license, they were not committed to the health of their patients anyway. It may be but I do find it hard to imagine anyone abandoning sick people or old, trapped people.

[smbolisnch]

19. What does them being LPNs have to do with it?

They are stil nurses and still should have stayed to help these people, LPN, RN or CNA.

[Horse with no Name]

23. Actually by law

The CNA doesn't have any direct patient responsibility.
Only the RN and LPN.
But amazingly enough, the ones without liability, and the ones who probably were paid much much less and did more work, stayed behind to take care of the patients.
The CNA's stayed and took care of these patients.
I'm proud of them. They did our profession proud.

[samsingh]

15. this is all bush's doing and the result of his

evil, stupidity and incompetance.

[MadHound]

20. Goddamn Bush all to hell

Fucking airdrop the supplies now! That's all it would take right now to alleiviate a lot of suffering. Strap the shit onto pallets and start kicking them out the back door of a C-130 with a parachute attached.

God-damn lazy fucking asshole, people are dying, and asshat's posturing and playing his goddamn geetar:grr:

[cyberpj]

28. WHERE'S THE NATIONAL GUARD!? WE NEED TO KEEP SCREAMING

IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

WHERE'S THE NATIONAL GUARD?

(Of course I know where - but we need to keep the thought out in the open --- lives could have been saved HERE.)