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Katrina Archives

Update on Dr. Wecht's Katrina trip

Authorities are now investigating whether hospital and nursing home patients were put out of their misery during Hurricane Katrina with lethal doses of morphine or other drugs. Dr. Wecht, who spent several days in Louisianna conducting autopsies, said toxicological tests should be able to show if drugs such as morphine were in a victim's system and whether they contributed to death.

Autopsy conditions seemed poor, at best. Dr. Wecht said most of the bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition so there were few blood samples. The toxicological tests had to rely on pieces of body tissue, instead.

See Probe looks at alleged Katrina euthanasia

December 02, 2005 | Permalink

Dr. Wecht to examine victims in New Orleans

Dr. Wecht will help examine bodies from Hurricane Katrina, reports Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I'm looking forward to it, not only on a professional level with the challenge of it all, but it's a chance to make a small contribution," Wecht said. Read the story.

October 25, 2005 | Permalink

Many Katrina victims may never be identified

MSNBCDr. Wecht joined 'The Situation with Tucker Carlson' on Tuesday to discuss the difficult task of identifying the dead in the wake of Katrina.

"These bodies, for the most part, have been decomposing now for about, what, two weeks. Temperatures above 90 degrees, very high humidity. Many of the bodies floating in water, which, of course, then, adds to the decomposition, particularly that kind of warm, brackish water. The bodies become bloated, gaseous distension, as a result of the bacterial infestation. The discoloration is very, very intense, mottled. It's impossible to differentiate between Caucasian, African-American and Asian, with bodies like this, as strange as that may seem."

Here's the transcript.

September 14, 2005 | Permalink

Katrina: A Public Health Tragedy

Dr. Wecht told Pittsburgh's KDKA TV Hurricane Katrina is a disaster that has the potential to develop into a public health tragedy. "I predict some of these disease processes will play out for months and even years ahead," explains Dr. Wecht, "because some of these diseases -- for example hepatitis, they can affect the liver and produce cirrhosis, scarring of the liver, and you may not even know about it for years." Here's the complete story.

September 07, 2005 | Permalink

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