“What do you think should happen to the Manganos, the facility owners charged with 35 counts of negligent homicide after Hurricane Katrina?”

“To me, the obvious answer is for our criminal justice system to treat the Manganos as it would anyone accused of committing a crime – that is, that they be considered innocent until proven guilty.”
– Administrator, Roger W. Parry,
Lexington, KY

“I think it is wholly inappropriate to ask your readers, who will not sit on the jury to hear this case in a courtroom and thus have no facts – other than the possibly true or untrue ‘facts’ that have been reported in the press – to give an opinion.”
– Long-Term Care Insurance Agent,
Annemiek Storm,
Genworth Financial LTCI Partners

“If their decision was based on the best knowledge they had and no purposeful intent, how can we as a society be that cruel that we must have a scapegoat for every death or incident? Let’s then prosecute every healthcare worker who makes a bad choice. We have gone nuts if we decide these folks are guilty on bad judgment alone.”
– Administrator, Marilynn Perry,
Edgerton Care Center, Edgerton, WI

“I do not personally know the Manganos, but it is my appreciation that what was reported in the national media was very sensationalized. The decision to evacuate a nursing facility is one that should not be made hastily. Evacuating residents this frail can very often result in deaths, just as not evacuating them can.”
– CEO, Teddy Price,
Central Management Company,
Winnfield, LA
“We should wait until the facts are presented under oath before any kind of decisions are made or opinions formed.”
– Owner, June Peach,
The Management Company,
Alexandria, LA

“There’s so much rhetoric involved that it’s difficult separating the wheat from the chaff. If they are guilty of leaving the residents to drown, then they should be charged with at least manslaughter. They had a responsibility for their patients and were charged with taking care of them. The families and patients had a trust in them to do the best they could for them, not abandon them in their hour of greatest need.”
– Social Worker, S. M. Julagay,
Lakeland Village. Medical Lake, WA

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thirty-five residents drowned at Salvador and Mabel Mangano’s Louisiana facility after the hurricane hit and levees broke in 2005. The Manganos say transporting so many frail residents under uncertain conditions would have been dangerous. The government and the failed levee system are the real culprits in the deaths, they maintain.