by Sheri Fink, Special to ProPublica March 11, 2010, 12:44 p.m.
A New Orleans coroner says he can't determine what killed a 79-year-old woman who died at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina. Though the patient had been given lots of morphine, "she had a lot of physiologic reasons to die," the coroner said. The ruling makes it highly unlikely that any charges will be brought in the case.