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New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 05:42:12 PM EST
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by Last Night in Little Rock

CNN.com reported about an hour ago in its "Breaking News" e-mail alerts that between 25 to 30 bodies have been found in a nursing home in St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans. (Nothing on CNN.com as of the time of this post.) The NY Times reported today that the elderly in Katrina's path were hard hit.

This apparently is a cost of the Bush Administration's extolation of "personal responsibility" for their own lives. They should have just evacuated, like all the "white people" with cars. They probably were trapped in their rooms or died in their beds. I pray they did not even know what was happening to them.

As Barbara Bush would say, the evacuees are better off anywhere else other than in New Orleans, like a dormitory for 20,000, since they had nothing to begin with. "Let them eat cake."

And so it goes...

Update:

Soledad O'Brien on CNN's Larry King Live reports "more than 30" dead at nursing home.

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    New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#1)
    by DonS on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    My father spent the last 4 years of his life in a nursing home, with dementia, until his death this June. The heartbreaking images this conjures will no doubt resonate powerfully with many. I imagine we will see the Rovian spin machine conjure the "no blame game" defense commensurately as the reports come in. Their (the Bush followers) valuation of politics over humanity is their disgrace.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    Last Night: ...apparently is a cost of the Bush Administration's extolation of "personal responsibility" for their own lives. And to add extreme insult to deadly injury: Times-Picayune Saturday, September 03, 2005 Bush visit halts food delivery By Michelle Krupa Staff writer Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said. Times-Picayune Printer Friendly Page

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#3)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    Leaving old folks to drown like rats...yep makes you kinda proud to be an American. C'mon everybody...sing it with me... And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m freeeeee...

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#4)
    by nolo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    I'm in no mood to let the federal administration off the hook, but what were the nursing home administrators thinking?

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    It's not like they died in the storm, they got abandoned when the going got tough. The resources were available to save them, but no one led the rescue. Cronyism kills.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#6)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    Some employee was the last one to walk out the door without making sure the residents would be taken care of. It wasn't Bush, Rove, Brown, Blanco, or Nagin.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    According to news report, local law enforcement approached the nursing home regarding evacuation. It was the owner who stated 'they would be all right'. However; after two hours within the storm, the owner wanted to leave, but roads were flooded. It sad to report that some of the victims were still alive four days after the storm hit. All residents and the owner perished.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#8)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:27 PM EST
    In these situations it's always the most vulnerable who die first, the elderly and the babies. It's no surprise that the staff abandon these people, when you're only making six dollars an hour doing one of the worst jobs that there is, does anybody really expect you to risk your life, it's no surprise that they split. It would've been far more humane if someone had just gone from room to room and shot them. Better to die than wind up in a nursing home anyway. Perhaps this was merciful.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:28 PM EST
    Let's see, save yourself or die trying to save 30 nursing home patients? Yes, some employees had to ditch, but it wasn't their responsibility to evacuate those people. Especially in the midst of flood waters up over your waist. It was pure survival. Roy, you carry this personal responsibility thing to quite the extreme. What would YOU have done? Stayed and died? How honorable.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:28 PM EST
    The attendents let down those who were depending on them. Personally, I think they deserve about the same fate as those they abandoned. What if that was your Parent in that home? Still OK with the attendents leaving 30 people to die? Just like the Local, State, and Federal authorities. Shame so many here only want it to investigate one or two out of three.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#11)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:28 PM EST
    Che,
    Roy, you carry this personal responsibility thing to quite the extreme.
    Are we both talking about the employees' responsibilities? They chose to accept responsibility for the residents' lives. They took money to do the job. They walked out. It's an extreme situation, but a pretty clear failure to live to obligations they willingly took on. The residents didn't have any responsibility. They couldn't care for themselves; that's why they (or their families) got the employees' to accept responsbility. It's also possible that the employees made an appropriate effort and simply failed, in which case I'm full of cr*p. Not enough information to be sure. BTW, I'm not trying to deny various beurocrats' blame -- they accepted responsibility too -- I just think it's silly that Bush is the only person blamed in LNiLR's writeup when several people with direct, invidiualized responsibility walked out.
    What would YOU have done? Stayed and died? How honorable.
    I wouldn't have accepted the job.

    Re: New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:28 PM EST
    Roy, So you factor in natural disasters when you decide on a job? I guess that's way down on my list of criteria. Way after something like parking. Most nursing home personnel are just above minimum wage workers. In a facility with that many patients (maybe some got out), there were maybe one or two nurses, no MD. The rest are low wage assistants, kitchen workers, housekeepers and volunteers. They didn't sign on for 8 bucks/hour to do what the authorities (whether local or federal) had already taken the responsibility for. If those patients weren't evacuated in the 48 hours before the storm, it was not the responsibility of those workers, who were also survivors, to do it in the aftermath. Did they have transportation? Where were the operators of that home? Bush apologists blame the victims.

    New Orleans Area Nursing Home Residents Die | 12 comments (12 topical)