Comments on: No Way Out

A Couple Faces Life In Prison After 35 People Die In Their Care

[jhj1017]

i noticed that also about the lady on oxygen. I think the dad was sitting up in a wheelchair.

[rockynlinds]

cannon621 you think you know but you have no idea....my family''s situation should not come out of your mouth anymore....you don''t know what you are talking about!

[rockynlinds]

For all of you ignorant people who are saying the blame should be on the relatives.....what part of this don''t you understand..."You''re family members will be alright, we have a plan to evacuate if we need to. They are in good hands." My mom was told that my grandfather would be ok....yes my grandmother was on oxygen and yes she did come with us, but my grandfather was unable to even sit up by himself. My grandmother was not in a home, she was able to live on her own and take care of herself. So think what you want about my family, we know what really happened and that is all that matters.

Lindsey Emmons

[cannon621]

i just had the chance to watch this story. I noticed that the family that did the most talking (i believe the galadora family was the name) talked about how the dad had a fall and needed nursing home care. Did anyone elswe notice that in one picture they showed the mother with the father and the mother was on oxygen. they were able to evacuate the mother on oxygen but couldn''t take the dad who had a fall? It makes me wonder what really is going on. I''ve always believed that the one who cries the loudest usually has the most regrets. i can''t say that blame should fall strictly on the mangos because even the governor said to congress "if the levees wouldn''t have failed we wouldn''t be here." I believe that their love for the patients was real. you could see the sadness when they spoke of the good times they had with them.

[tellall22]

In this case you cannot put full blame on anyone or specific party. How many hurricanes end up being a "cry wolf" situation? (whether or not you choose to listen to them is your decision) The Mangano''s should have listened and had a better evac policy which family members should be or have been well aware of. So am I saying are family members to blame a little...yes. Having worked at a nursing home you wouldn''t believe how many residents go without any visitors, until they thought they could make a quick buck off them. Come on...the US Army Corp of Eng. they can only do with what the government gives. This was and still is a devistating situation for everyone.

[cgr260]

Also, there was a reason the Mangano''s did not testify, because they would have had to answer tough questions and been forced to lie to save themselves.

[cgr260]

Nice posting sicktwisted0, very mature. I know those two situations are different, I was trying to make a point. The Mangano''s were neglegent, and their neglegence caused people to die.

[quitnowplz]

Huber your GUILT has NOTHING to do with leaving your mother there. You know that and I do too. I believe your words were something about they''ll answer when they meet their maker, remember dear you''ll answer too.

[huber004]

to the idiot "quitnowpiz"-what a name! You''re right I do feel a tremendous amount of guilt that I trusted these greedy liars. Its a shame, there probably were good folks working at St. Rita''s, you obviously were not one of them. I feel sorry for you too.

[tomtomasters]

I would put the blame on sons and daughters who would send their parents to such group dying homes. Nursing Homes in themselves are a crime to human rights, never mind the hurricane and floods. People have the right to stay in their own homes, with nurses hired to care for people in their homes. If they refuse to leave it is their own doing. I say the Mangano''s are guilty of operating a Nursing Home, and of course are responsible, hurricane or not! Nursing Homes should be outlawed in the USA.

[mercyme884]

Whatever happened to just telling the truth and accepting responsibility for your actions.Is all the world full of lies and deceit.The Manganos made a bad decision and a lot of people died. And that is the truth. Why even listen to *** and lies when everyone knows what happened lies directly on the shoulders of the persons making decisions, they are guilty and responsible for the deaths of those people in their care. Whether their intentions were right or wrong they should be judged on the results of those decisions. They were responsible for those thirty-five people being dead.

[rowdytexan2]

Hindsight is a fine thing, but during an evacuation, would I have left a parent behind in the hands of a nursing home who possibly had 50 other patients to see to?

No, I would have found some kind of accomodation and taken them with me. My elderly parent becomes my responsibility.

Nursing homes are notorious for eyeing the bottom line. You can''t trust them for squat! If you''re not checking on your loved one every day, then you''re negligent.

[quitnowplz]

As a former worker at St Rita''s I know the whole truth about huber004 and the "love" she had for her mother. I won''t get into it but she has a TON of GUILT on her mind and she needs to blame it on someone else.

[catme1]

I think the Mangano''s did an excellent job. It came out during court that NO evac was ever ordered for St. Bernard. It was also said on 48 hours. The parish president stated it would cost too much money to call a mandatory evacuation. It was also stated that no one knew who had the right to call an order. I think the blame was placed on who was at fault. THE ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS!!!!!!

[huber004]

The State of La., did a great job in providing evident to prove guilt. An asst. admin of another facility overheard Mabel say at a conference "she was not putting her resident thru an evac. Unless a hurricane was at her backdoor, I''m not leaving and waste the money".
May God bless all of the residents who drowned at St. Rita''s.
The only real "mystery" here is how 6 supposedly reasonable citizens could acquit the Manganos? I would like to know the answer to that.

[huber004]

My mother drowned at St. Rita''s, she drowned because the Manganos did not evacuate, they chose not to evacuate because of greed, I sat thru 4 weeks of the criminal trial and so much evidence pointed to that fact.
We were told on Saturday, August 27, 2005 by T.J. Mangano that they were going to evacuate, for us not to worry, the residents would be safe. Did she know all along the plan was to stay? I learned of my mother''s death, thru a post on the internet.
People reading this that think the Manganos are innocent have to realize, many of these residents in nursing homes have no one to care for them. When owners, such as the Manganos, assume the duty of running a nursing home it is no longer about them, but the care of frail, dependent citizens, for which they were well paid. There were 5 special needs residents there. Expert witnesses testified they could have been transported had they left in time. The Manganos failed miserably. Had I known there was no plans to evacuate, I would have gotten my mother and my aunt out.

[jbvksbj]

I was wondering why the story of the Lafon Nursing home in New Orleans which is a few miles away from St. Rita''s was left out of this piece. 22 people died there. Attorney General Foti did not charge the owners of Lafon with any wrongdoing. Want to know why? It is run by an order of Catholic Nuns. The Achdiocese evacuated all the convent nuns, but left the nuns in the nursning home.

the City of New Orleans issured a MANDATORY evacuation order, but Lafon did not evacuate despite the order. The Attorney General did not file charges against Lafon - because it would have been BAD PRESS going after the Church and Nuns.

The people screaming the loudest are the ones you need to look at, the family members - they feel guilty for leaving their relatives and they need to blame someone.

The Manganos did the best they could. They sheltered in place as they had all the other years when a hurricane came. There were other nursing homes that did not evacuate in this city too...ask 48 hours to check into some of those. Let''s see a story on the Lafon Nursing Home.

I feel sorry for everyone involved in this event. Lot''s of good people died. I feel very sorry for the Manganos most of all. They are not evil, they thought they were doing the right thing for their patients and it turned out to be the worst mistake of their lives.

[mmcc29651]

I could not belive a jury would find them not guilty.
these people falsified a evacuation plan, turned down help offered over & over agian. "who do you pull the plug on" Mrs.Mangano ask most nursing homes especially 35 bed homes don''t have patients on life support Money was all they were worried about aside from the cost of evacuation ( a real plan requires contracts that cost money) medicare & medicaid in most states pay by the day if the resident is elswhere at midnight that nursing home doesn''t get the money in 90% of the cases. What was wrong with the nursing staff rhat none of them attempted to report this and get someone to get them out. As for the families not caring or they would of evacuated there loved one alot of those cases that would not be possible ambulance cost would prohibit it and where do they take them? It was the nursing homes responsibility to see that these residents were kept safe and they failed. I loved the coment T THE END THAT THEY WOULD NOT RUN ANOTHER NURSING HOME WHAT STATE WOULD LICENSE THEM

[lizziern]

This is horrible, but why didn''t the people that were leaving realize they needed to get their families in nursing homes out of there as well? If they thought it wouldn''t be safe for them, how could they think it was safe for those in St. Rita''s nursing home? I don''t think the residents would have drowned had the levy''s (sp) held.

[ella419]

This is just a horrible situation, and I am so sorry for the families; but I just can''t help thinking, and I realize that I speak as someone removed from the entire situation, but I would never evacuate the area without taking my family members. I would never leave my family behind-even if I thought they would be taken care of by some facility. I would have gone and taken my family member with me. I could not live with myself otherwise.