La. Investigates Allegations of Euthanasia at Hospital

On Friday, alternately angry and tearful, they defended their work, describing the frustrations and challenges of their grim task.

"It seems like you can't do anything quick enough," state health officer Jimmy Guidry said. "When people say we're not moving fast enough, people must not understand the complexities of this issue."

Many bodies were so severely decomposed, it was impossible to determine a person's sex or race by visual examination, he said. Some have no skin. Morticians are working in tents filled with an overwhelming putrid smell.

While other states, including Mississippi, frequently rely on a tattoo or distinguishing physical characteristic to identify a body, Cataldie has insisted on fingerprints, DNA or dental records for a definitive match.

"I'm glad Mississippi identified their bodies," said Brian Bertucci, coroner of St. Bernard Parish. "I was upset that that implied we were inadequate or inept."

At the same time, several criminal investigations are underway. Foti, the attorney general, last month charged the operators of St. Rita's nursing home with 34 counts of negligent homicide after they abandoned patients there. More recently, he initiated the investigation of the deaths at Memorial after a physician there told news outlets he had heard discussions of euthanizing the most frail patients.

That investigation is "pretty serious" and could last two weeks, Foti's spokeswoman, Kris Wartelle, said Friday evening.

Memorial's parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corp., released a brief statement commending the "heroic" work of the hospital staff and indicating it is cooperating with the investigation.

Glenn Casey, chairman of the anesthesiology department at Memorial, said that even as the temperature inside rose to 105 degrees, staff continued to care for every patient with dignity. Even a hint of euthanasia "never would have been sanctioned by the medical staff," he said in an interview.

Outside the morgue, two sisters held signs and complained that they have tried for weeks to collect the body of their mother, who they said died at the New Orleans convention center.

"If you have only four people you took out of the convention center, you should know where you put them," Earline Coleman said. "The process is not working."

On Sept. 5, federal officials converted a warehouse in this small community south of Baton Rouge into a morgue capable of processing more than 5,000 bodies. The building and adjacent red-brick school have served as the makeshift offices, laboratories, homes and cafeterias for more than 130 mortuary workers. In an attempt to create some semblance of normalcy, the workers hung pink lace curtains over some of the windows.

Asked what has been the most difficult case so far, Cataldie described examining a woman who had obviously floated for miles, parts of her body gnawed on by animals.

"That individual may never, ever be identified," he said.