A Pulitzer Prize-winning doctor, reporter, and author reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina destroyed its generators to reveal how caregivers were forced to make life-and-death decisions without essential resources, an experience that raised key issues about practitioner responsibilities and end-of-life care.
Hurricane Katrina is not a storm anyone will soon forget, especially those who call southeastern Louisiana home. The devastation, grief, and loss caused by this storm is difficult to surmount, but perhaps the greatest destruction and injustice brought on by Katrina was not handed to New Orleans by Mother Nature, but rather by her own citizens and government.
There's a renewed interest in one particular tragedy - the events that went down behind the walls of Memorial Hospital in the days after the storm - due to Apple TV's recent adaptation of Sheri Fink's Five Days at Memorial, a well-researched, Pulitzer Prize-winning book that questions if doctors at Memorial Hospital crossed the line in providing care to their patients - were they treating the ill or murdering them?
Armed with only vague knowledge of the situation at Memorial Hospital, I went into Five Days at Memorial with eyes wide open ... and was horrified by what I discovered. Every time I thought that the events of this jaw-dropping story couldn't possibly get worse, I was proven wrong. I was glued to Fink's exposé, and at the end walked away with disbelief and fury at the gross mishandling of the lives of patients who put their trust in Memorial's medical staff.
Fink details the five days at Memorial Hospital in a compelling, narrative style that is highly readable and engaging. She drops readers smack dab in the middle of the chaos and presents the facts, allowing them to form their own opinions of the doctors' and nurses' action in the days leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina.
This eye-opening tale of Katrina comes highly recommended!
Availability: Book; Large Print Book; Book on CD; eBook in cloudLibrary Rating: ***** Stars (I loved it) Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
ARE YOU AND THIS BOOK A GOOD MATCH? DISCOVER MORE WITH NOVELIST APPEALS!
AWARDS: ALA Notable Books - Nonfiction: 2014; Booklist Editors' Choice - Best Social Sciences Books: 2013; Library Journal Top Ten; LibraryReads Favorites: 2013; Los Angeles Times Book Prizes: Current Interest; Lukas Prize Project: J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize; National Book Critics Circle Award: General Nonfiction; New York Times Notable Books - Nonfiction: 2013
GENRE: History Writing; Page to Screen; True Crime
WRITING STYLE: Accessible; Well-Researched
TONE: Atmospheric; Disturbing
LOCATION: New Orleans, Louisiana
SUBJECT: Death; Disaster Relief; Euthanasia; Hospitals; Hurricane Katrina; Hurricanes; Medical Malpractice; Survival after Hurricanes
IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK, YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY THESE TITLES: