AT LEAST 60 LIVING PEOPLE LEFT TO DIE IN MILITARY MORGUE

New Orleans Independent Media Center
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AT LEAST 60 LIVING PEOPLE LEFT TO DIE IN MILITARY MORGUE
by DR. MARK N. PERLMUTTER Tuesday, Sep. 20, 2005 at 7:42 AM

He saw 80 of the people in the morgue, and 60 of them were still alive, in the morgue, waiting to die in a room they call the expectancy room. He begged for -- he begged for four of those people to be removed. For all of them to be reevaluated, the chief medical officer at the time, whose name he didn't catch said, "I'm sorry, they have to stay there to die." He then went to another chief medical officer who allowed him to take four people out and Reverend Noland tells me that alls they needed was water to come back to life.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/19/asb.01.html

BROWN: Katrina leaves lots of questions. Dr. Mark Perlmutter is an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania. He rushed to New Orleans after Katrina hit to offer his help. What happened to him when he first got there is a crime, even if it is not exactly criminal. He joins us from Kittson, Pennsylvania tonight.

You get to the airport, which is now the medical staging area, and just describe the scene there in terms of patients and needs and doctor availability.

DR. MARK N. PERLMUTTER, TURNED AWAY BY FEMA: Well, first of all, there were no doctors available outside on the tarmac where I was assigned to work. There was an OBGyn doctor that was triaging on the asphalt where the people were coming off the helicopters being lined up head to toe atthe baggage receiving area below the terminal. They were head to toe, four people wide, 100 yards long, ranging from people with just shock or people in coma to people with tremendous needs for insulin or medicines they hadn't had in eight days and people who were dying.

I'd done chest compressions on one person and watched her die because of lack of assistance and at that point -- and I was assigned to be there by a FEMA officer. He then came down and grabbed me and said that you're not FEMA certified and therefore, you must leave. I needed to talk to his director. It was a commander French, a Coast Guard officer who was in charge, the local officer in charge of FEMA.

I turned to the green medic who was there, who by her own admission had no experience with medicine and asked her, how would you treat this patient with diabetic cedoacidosis (PH) and she asked me to define what that was. I had to leave that patient, not even being able to give her the insulin that I brought from home to give o her that could have saved her life. I was taken to speak to Commander French. He told us that we had to go. And then when I went back to get my supplies, that woman had expired.

BROWN: All right, let me just -- let me recap and move us forward. You get on the tarmac, and basically, the FEMA guy says, "you don't have the right paperwork." And people are sick and in some cases dying around you. You go talk to his boss and he confirms that and that's their concern is, what, they'd get sued?

PERLMUTTER: Exactly, my colleague who went with me, Dr. Clark Gerhardt, specially asked him why, because we were bewildered, there was no FEMA doctor there to replace us, FEMA registered doctor. He said, specifically, tort. They were afraid of the government being sued, because I'm protected by Good Samaritan laws.

BROWN: What sort of paperwork, I mean, assuming that, honestly, I'm a patient on the tarmac, I care that you have a medical license, not that you have something from FEMA, but that's me. hat sort of paperwork was it that you needed? How long would that have taken?

PERLMUTTER: Well, we did eventually register that very day. It took two seconds to register.

BROWN: Is there any reason why they couldn't have had someone there on the spot just filling out the form?

PERLMUTTER: Oh, obviously not, the egregious violation of the responsibility dictates how many people really died. I've had colleagues who went into the morgue, a room that they called the expectancy room, where people were still living in the morgue. One FEMA member, he's a Chaplin in the -- in FEMA, was in the stadium and he prayed with 200 people, he tells me. And of those 200 people when they had to evacuate the stadium, he eventually saw them in the airport. He saw 80 of the people in the morgue, and 60 of them were still alive, in the morgue, waiting to die in a room they call the expectancy room.

BROWN: That's amazing.

PERLMUTTER: He begged for -- he begged for four of those people to be e moved. For all of them to be reevaluated, the chief medical officer at the time, whose name he didn't catch said, "I'm sorry, they have to stay there to die." He then went to another chief medical officer who allowed him to take four people out and Reverend Noland tells me that alls they needed was water to come back to life. And I believe that, because I've seen that myself.

BROWN: Dr. Perlmutter, there -- actually, there are a number of other parts of your story that we should talk about on another night. But when people talk about decisions made and decisions not made, but whatever the level of government they need to member that what happened to you down there. We appreciate your efforts to save lives. Thank you.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/19/asb.01.html
transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/19/asb.01.html

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