MSNBC just showed the dozens of bodies, sheets covering them, in the Memorial Medical Center. One can only hope that some of these patients were mercifully put down by doctors before they died this horrible death. (AP):

At least 40 bodies were found Sunday at the 317-bed Memorial Medical Center, but the exact number was unclear. Bob Johannesen, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Hospitals, said 45 patients had been found; hospital assistant administrator David Goodson said there were 44, plus three on the grounds.

Also unclear was exactly how the patients died.

Steven Campanini, a spokesman for the hospital’s owner, Tenet Healthcare Corp., said some of the patients were dead before the storm arrived, and none of the deaths resulted from lack of food, water or electricity to power medical equipment. He said many were seriously ill.

Goodson said patients died while waiting to be evacuated over the four days after the hurricane hit, as temperatures inside the hospital reached 106 degrees. “I would suggest that that had a lot to do with” the deaths, he said of the heat.

…Dr. Jeffrey Kochan, a Philadelphia radiologist volunteering in New Orleans, said members of the team that recovered the bodies from the hospital in the city’s Uptown section told him they found 36 corpses floating on the first floor.

“These guys were just venting. They need to talk,” he said. “They’re seeing things no human being should have to see.”

Bush, in his third visit to New Orleans since the storm, made his first foray to the streets Monday and toured the city for 45 minutes aboard the back of a truck, forcing him at times to duck to avoid low-hanging electrical wires and branches.

He disputed suggestions that the government responded sluggishly because the victims were mostly poor and black.

The Freepi show their normal level of class.

Actual Freeper Quotesâ„?

“How come nobody ate them?”

“Autopsies required.”

“This is the hospital the leftwing fans of Charity Hospital claimed had been totally evacuated. They demanded all efforts be turned to Charity. Apparantly they got their wish. Might not Mr. Brown have been canned as a consequence?”

“No clean Tabasco sauce.”

“Indeed – i wonder if this is proof of that “mercy killing” rumor I read elsewhere. There is so much left unsaid and unreported, still, about what happened in that city after the levee broke. I think the media is trying to erase what we thought we saw, or something. Where’s the investigative reporting, the interviews with doctors and nurses and policemen and tourists and bus drivers, etc? I sometimes suspect that if a person doesn’t walk right past the hotel where the journos are staying, they don’t get interviewed.”

“i agree, and if they were overdosed with morphine to die than I think charges need to be filed asap!”

“Possibly the bodies were there before the storm hit? How many patients die in a day? I sure don’t know. Not that many I wouldn’t think (note to self: don’t go to this hospital if sick.)”

“Could it be these bodies were killed by looters?”

“Somewhere, a social security check is being cashed for them.”

“Lack of electricity, perhaps if they were on life support systems? Its all only speculation until autopsies are performed.”

“I have wondered about all of the SS payments. You know that is going to be a nightmare.”

“It sounds like this came as a surprise. Didn’t the hospital mention this to someone in authority?”

“that is true. If these people were on life support and the electricity went off they’d be screwed. Thing is most hospitals have generators in case of this type of event. Also, most hospitals would have moved their critical patients out to other area hospital’s. Something about this stinks to high heaven”

“Is this the one that looters attacked while patients were still inside?”

“Probably by the time the story is verified, it will 5 bodies found.”

“Like the 10,000 dead claim is now around 200…And the 6 months to pump out the city is now down to 2 to 3 weeks. Journalism today is a joke.”

“450 of the displaced N.O. residents were brought to my city on the 6 day after the event. Many were elderly and many were drug addicts who were going through dt’s. If the few I saw were any indication of the ones who were sick or dying anyway, it could have just been a day in the life of that hospital. I know the problems were high and they were begging for help. I hope the TRUTH comes out on this story and not just speculation on the part of MSM.”

“No doubt they’ll all vote for Nagin in the next primary.”

“And for this over-the-top speculation and outright fabrication, the msm is covering itself in acolades about their hard questioning of the Bush administration. I really think this was a Democrat plot to get the President, demonically conceived by someone higher up than that dunce, Kathleen Blanco. They knew that chaos and rioting would ensue if all those people had no help for 5 days, and they knew the msm would pin it on Pres. Bush. Sadly, so far it has worked, if his rotten poll numbers can be believed.”

“Exactly…though the number seems high, we don’t know how many had died before or during the hurricane. Obviously, people would not evacuate dead bodies…autopsies are in order here before jumping to conclusions”

“But remember, “New Orleans dodged the bullet.””

“100 found in a warehouse, 30 in a nursing home and now 45 in a hospital. I do not remember if we have been told how many in the domed dome or convention center.”

“Probably because they had already left the hospital to riot, loot, get shot, fire rockets, and drown in the sea.”

“Modern hospitals are filled with frail old people on the verge of death even with the heroic intervention of modern medical technology. Cut off the juice for a few days and they will slip away.”

“Could it be these bodies were killed by looters?”“

“Maybe, the looters were looking for drugs, so the doctors OD’ed them.”