Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Book: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Author: Sheri Fink

After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths.

Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.

In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.
 -Goodreads

Review: This was an extremely detailed, deep dive into what happened at Memorial Hospital after Katrina. It was a very interesting case about medical ethics and would have been a 5 star read if the author had done a better job of being objective. 

Overall, worth the read. 

Rating: 4/5

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