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NEW ORLEANS--Six Louisiana hospitals and 13 nursing homes are under investigation by the state's Medicaid Fraud Control unit of the attorney general's office for the dozens of patient deaths both during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Allegations include that some patients were abandoned while others were allegedly evacuated improperly or euthanized. Four lawyers and 18 investigators have been assigned to the case.
Over 140 deaths were reported. So far, the only arrests in the case have been a married couple, owners of a nursing home, charged Sept. 14 with negligent homicide in the deaths of 34 residents.
The couple's lawyer say that they are innocent of any criminal wrongdoing, deciding that it was safer to keep the patients in the nursing home rather than try to evacuate them.
Records and other materials have been seized by the AG's office from the Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans where 34 patients died as a result of flood waters from the storm.
10-22-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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