3 Arrested in New Orleans Hospital Deaths

In August, an airboat helped evacuate patients at Memorial Medical Center after Katrina. A doctor and two nurses who allegedly administered lethal doses of morphine and another drug to patients were arrested. (By Bill Haber -- Associated Press)

Test results on the four bodies listed in the affidavit were positive for morphine and midazolam, the generic name for a drug known as Versed, and none of the patients was receiving those drugs for their routine care.

Foti would not say why Pou and the nurses would have killed the patients.

"It is not my job or duty to say what the motive was," he said. He did not publicly identify the four dead patients.

But he said there was no indication that the patients had asked to be killed or that any were about to die as the hospital descended into crisis. "I think the patients would have lived through it," he said.

But Simmons said the motive in a homicide is critical, and Foti's failure to outline one could unravel the case. The district attorney in New Orleans will now consider the evidence and decide whether to bring formal charges.

Foti "says he couldn't figure out a motive," Simmons said. "But if he can't figure out a motive, how can he prove a homicide? A homicide involves intentional actions."

Angela McManus had been living at her mother's bedside until ordered to leave and believes that her mother was among those administered a lethal dose. "It's a relief," she said of the arrests. "She might still be here if they had simply rescued her."

In a statement, Tenet Healthcare, which owns the medical center, said, "Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health-care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances."