Doctors who stay behind during hurricanes to treat patients who otherwise can’t evacuate will be more secure that their decisions won’t be second guessed following Tuesday’s grand jury decison, according to the past president of the Louisiana Medical Society.

CBS News

Doctor Anna Pou. (File Photo)

Dr. Floyd Buras made the comment after the grand jury did not criminally charge a doctor who had been accused of committing homicide on four patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Buras said the decision vindicated Dr. Anna Pou and her nurses, who he said valiantly tried to save as many lives as they could in conditions that were best described as horrid.

“I think the best news…is that those of us who stay behind can be reassured now that when we act, as long as we act in good faith and good conscience, we are not going to be second-guessed.”

Buras said it is his opinion that if legitimate medical decisions are later second guessed, then doctors would practice defensive medicine and protect their own interests instead of those of the patients.

The Louisiana Medical Society has supported Dr. Pou’s medical decisions in Memorial Medical Center since last September, saying that the medical professionals at Memorial were in crisis situation and acted appropriately.

“I’ve talked to Dr. Pou and many other physicians who were in Baptist that day and they said it was horrible and it went on and on for days,” said Buras. “(They were) having to treat patients in horrible conditions, no air-conditioning, no water, no supplies. You had to do the best you could do. To then have someone who wasn’t even there come along and make assumptions and make allegations without any evidence of what was going on.”

Dr. Buras said that with limited supplies and manpower and with no help on the way, doctors and nurses had to do the best they could. In their training they know that there are sometimes battlefield situations where they can’t save everyone. That is when they are trained to relieve suffering and make people more comfortable.

“If your intent is to relieve someone of their life, then you can call it euthanasia, you can call it homicide,” added Buras. “If your intent is to relieve suffering, that’s not either of those situations. The fact those patients didn’t survive was not the result of those treatments. It was the result of their illness and the horrible situation that the hurricane created.”

Late Tuesday, Tenet Healthcare Corp., the owners of Memorial Medical Center at the time of the flood, issued a statement.

“We are pleased with today’s grand jury decision. As we have said previously, the health care professionals at Memorial Medical Center acted heroically to care for patients under extremely difficult conditions after Hurricane Katrina.”