Doctor talks about role after Katrina
A cancer surgeon once charged with killing four patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina said in a rare interview that she would stay with her patients again if a similar disaster struck.
Dr. Anna Pou was at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans once power failed, levees broke and 80% of New Orleans was flooded.
In four days of misery, 34 patients at the hospital died. Afterward, Pou would be accused -- and later cleared -- of giving lethal doses of drugs to four patients during the chaos.
A year after her arrest, the district attorney dropped charges against two nurses charged with Pou, and a grand jury refused to indict the doctor.
Her experience made her a champion of emergency-care workers and disaster planning. She helped get landmark state legislation approved to protect the actions of doctors and nurses during disasters.
"I thought I had suffered at times in my life, but I had no idea the depths of pain one person could feel," she said. "I think that has made me a better person and certainly a more compassionate doctor."
MASSACHUSETTS
Activists ordain 3 female priests
An activist group hoping to pressure the Roman Catholic Church into dropping its prohibition barring women from the priesthood says it has ordained three women.
The group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests held the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, a Protestant Church in Boston.
The group said the three women -- Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Judy Lee of Fort Myers, Fla., and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York -- were responding to a call to serve the church.
The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement decrying the ceremony. The Vatican has warned that women taking part in ordination ceremonies will be excommunicated.
MASSACHUSETTS
Patient may have mad cow disease
State health officials are investigating whether a patient in a Cape Cod hospital has the human form of mad cow disease.
There have only been three cases of the human form of mad cow disease, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob, reported in the U.S. in the last several years.
Test results are expected to take a few more days.
A Cape Cod Hospital spokesman said public health officials did not consider the illness contagious.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charges in death of pregnant teen
A woman suspected of cutting open a pregnant woman's uterus and stealing the baby has been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping.
