Her story made national and international news. Dr. Anna Pou, along with two nurses, arrested for second-degree murder after patients died in Memorial Medical Center in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Now in an exclusive, she reveals that her ordeal could change the way doctors practice disaster medicine across the U.S.

Bill Haber / Associated Press

Dr. Anne Pou and her attorney, Richard Simmons

"I don't think any of us, ever any of us who work and live in the United States of America, ever thought we'd find ourselves in a situation like that because we do live in the best country in the world. I think and we have the best health care in the world,"  says Dr. Anna Pou, a professor of Otolaryngology at LSU Health Sciences Center.

It's been a year since an Orleans Parish grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to indict Dr. Anna Pou.

Today, she is busy as a head and neck cancer specialist and surgeon. She is on the faculty of LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and treats her patients and the needy of the state, commuting to clinics set up in Baton Rouge. She also runs the program to train the state's future doctors in that field.

"This is my home and I came home just a year before Katrina so I could be near my family and I could give back to the state that had give n so much for me," she said.

And now she has taken on another mission in life. Along with her attorney Rick Simmons they gathered the support of lawmakers this past session to do something no other state has done.

"We have just passed unprecedented laws regarding disaster medicine, so Louisiana is really the leader in this," she says. 

Here's what the three new laws do in a declared disaster.

First, doctors and nurses who are volunteering or getting paid are not responsible for injury or death unless there is gross negligence or intentional misconduct.  

Second, when the government is making decisions on who is evacuated or treated first, doctors and nurses are not accountable for patient outcomes again unless there is intentional misconduct.

And third, a special panel of the coroner, medical and disaster experts will review forensics and advise government prosecutors if there is enough evidence to pursue the case.

Doctors say the laws protect patients too, assuring that enough doctors will stay and come help from other states during a storm. In some states, doctors took their names off of the disaster volunteer list after Dr. Pou was arrested.

"I think it's necessary for this state to understand t hat it's important that visiting doctors are welcome here and they will be treated fairly," says attorney Rick Simmons.  

"This is a national problem it can be for any disaster and the ones that are more likely to happen in the near future would be a pandemic or a terrorist attack, but it could be a chemical spill, a tornado, whatever," Dr. Pou adds. 

She says the new laws are similar to the protection military doctors get.

"What made Katrina so different is that civilian doctors are not used to being in war-like conditions. For the military, when you're in war their typical triage for them is for you to save as many people as possible. You do the most good for the most number of people," says Dr. Pou. 

Now other states, and prestigious medical organizations around the U.S., are interested in what Louisiana has done, inviting Dr. Pou to help them make change as well.

"In some ways, it was a very good thing that happened because so much good is going to come from it regarding disaster preparedness and disaster management," she says. 

Even with these three new state laws to protect medical workers, hospitals and corporations could still be liable for wrong doing.

There are still three civil cases pending against Dr. Pou.