Ethical Behavior?

Do you think this arrest is justifiable?



"Thirty-four people drowned in a nursing home where they should have been evacuated."
Dr. Bryan Bertucci, a coroner, said he called all five nursing homes in the parish as the storm was threatening the city, and all but St. Rita's said they were evacuating their patients.
By Sunday at 2 p.m., when the danger was imminent and a mandatory evacuation order had been issued, he called back and spoke with Mrs. Mangano.
The Manganos had a spotless record for 20 years, and the home was well-regarded in the community, Cobb, their attorney, said.
Bertucci said the Manganos had provided good care before the storm, but he found fault with their decision not to evacuate. "I think they made a poor decision," he said.
"They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people."
The Manganos, who face up to five years on each count, surrendered Tuesday to Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigators in Baton Rouge and posted bail
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/13/katrina.nursinghome/index.html

 

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Not really unethical. We are taught that you have to be ruthless in this world to be succesful. You can't really blame people to try to emulate their role models.

 

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I think the arrest is justifiable, but remember, that does NOT mean a conviction! They could still be proved innocent of the charges.

Baron Max

 

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I doubt that they forbade their patients from leaving
They just chose not to force them to
It is neglegant
But should not bring criminal charges
The families of the patient are equaly at fault

 

But the thing for me is that they called the family and assured them that things were ok. Also Bertucci says after he found that it was mandatory that the owners said that they would evacuate the patients themselves

 

Do you really think that Max? I would think that it would be more consistant with your views to point out that criminal negligence is just what you have to expect from people, and it was the old folks's own fault they died because they didn't spontaniously form some sort of militant revolt against the nursing home staff, steal some busses, and drive themselves out of the storm's way.

 

Where did they eventually find the owners? I understand that they were missing, or at least authorities were unable to find them for a time, where did they ultimately show up? Did they blow out of town for the storm and leave some of their staff and the patients behind?

 

???

Baron Max

 

Has anyone asked themselves ......where were the patients' "loved ones"???

Should they also be brought up on charges for crimes of abandonment or something like that?

Should they be exonerated simply because they paid someone else to care for them .....when they didn't want to bother with it themselves? Or for whatever the reasons?

Baron Max

 

why the hell is it the fault of the familys of the patents that a nursing home wasnt evacuated?

as soon as ANY form of evac is ordered anywhere that people are in care of other people like hospitals, nursing homes and prisions SHOULD be evacuated. These people cant care for themselves and it shouldnt be negligence the charge should be MANSLAUGHTER on each count with 15 years for each person and no parol. let THEM see how they like being under the control of someone else.

That is assuming they are found guilty, innocent until proven

 

I think it was in part due to being a trust issue. They called the families and advised them that they would be evacuating and then said they would stay.

 

The families should take some of the blame, if not most of it. They knew that they had family members in a potentially hazardous location, they should have gotten them out themselves. Instead, they are just blaming the owners because it is convienant to do so. Lawsuits will ensue, no doubt.

 

The more reasonable answer is this: Both families, the nursing home, and the patients themselves (who are conscious or coherent) are to blame. The families for not checking in on their relatives, the nursing home for not evacuating, and the patients for not finding means to evacuate themselves.

 

IMO, the responsibility rests solely on those charged with the duty to take care of the patients. Of course the management took a calculated risk, afterall who was to know the outcomes of such a storm. They did however have the duty of care to ensure the safety of the tenants. They have declared their responsibility by stating that they would not evacuate. The management have assumed full and total responsibility by deciding against higher opinion [ state advice]

They also failed to have contigency plans in case they had made a mistake [ a mistake they did indeed make]

As to whether they can be enprisoned for negligence is another matter.

When a person takes it upon themselves to over rule a general concensus , that being evacuation is necessary they have taken full responsibility for outcomes.

If the storm turned out to be a fizzer they would be patting themselves on the back and telling every one how much money and inconvenience they saved, but alas nature proved them wrong and fatally wrong. Their calculated risk proved to be fatal.

So are they responsible for their decisions or not?
What does that responsibility entail?

The whole thing is tragically sad, but they did decide to go it alone and unfortunately a lot of people are now paying for that decision. Should not the management also pay?

Just an opinion and not set in concrete either.

 

Bells:

Yes, I would. They ought to have attempted any and all efforts to get out of there, including calling up their family, or a private taxi or bus, or even just bugging the Hell out of the nursing staff. Supposing they did everything in their power, then they are not at fault, no.

They bucked against a mandatory evacuation, not really a "calculated risk" that is legal.

They opted to take the route of non-safety, so are they responsible? Yes.

 

Yes I think it is a justified arrest. The situtation here is not unlike a day care and the obligations of the person running the daycare. Families or the person living there have hired these people (the nursing home owners) to provide living/care services. This would include keeping them safe from potential harm. Offers were made on several fronts to evacuate these persons and the owners made a choice that resulted in the deaths of numbers of persons in their care.

So far its not been reported whether or not the owners extended these offers of evacuation to the persons in their care. Did the owners just make a decision themselves on whether or not people would be evacuated?

 

They did make the decision but they also called the relatives or what have you of the people in their care. What they told them or how they explained the situation to them somewhat made the decision for the relatives not to come and pick up their kinfolk. Who knows, the kinfolk may have decided to ride out the storm themselves and were convinced by the health providers that the patients were safer with them.

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