Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

by Sheri Fink

“First one where morphine is found is a Harold Dupas, D-U-P-A-S.” “Yes sir,” Schafer said. Dupas was one of the nine patients the LifeCare staff had believed were injected by Dr. Pou or the two Memorial nurses who came up to the seventh floor on Thursday, September 1. “Next is a Hollis Ford [Hollis Alford]; Wilda McManus; Elaine Nelson; Emmett Everett; Alice Hutzler, H-U-T-Z-L-E-R; Rose Savoie, S-A-V-O-I-E; Ireatha, I-R-E-T-H-A [sic], Watson; and George Huard, H-U-A-R-D. I apologize for the pronunciation.” It was stunning. Of the eighteen samples tested, those positive for the two drugs coincided exactly with the names on the attorney’s list of suspicious deaths. And the laboratory hadn’t been told which names were on the list.