Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina – and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice In the tradition of the best writing on medicine, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs...
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Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina – and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice In the tradition of the best writing on medicine, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos. 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.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780307718969 (0307718964)
ASIN: 307718964
Publish date: September 10th 2013
Publisher: Crown
Pages no: 558
Edition language: English
It was hard to put down this impressive work of journalism that focuses on events at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. As hurricane season approaches it begs the question: are we better prepared to deal with natural disasters in the U.S.? The epilogue to t...
"Someday," the letter writer warned, "the truth will be told".--anonymous writer, in response to an essay for Modern Healthcare written by Touro Infirmary CEO, Les Hirsch. The writer called out Hirsch, who was explaining away actions taken by hospital staff during Hurricane Katrina. The anonymous...
The first five days of Hurricane Katrina for the doctors, patients, and non-patients at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans. Wow! This is a well-written, well-documented look at what happened at the hospital and the aftermath of those decisions and actions. It reads like a novel. I was pulled in from t...
This gets such a high review on Goodreads and Amazon that I have been wanting to read it for awhile. Based on Hurricane Katrina's effects on "Memorial", I was looking forward to a story that I didn't realize was more of an essay, based on author interviews. Purely my mistake, so I continued. But it'...
Most of the time, doctors get it right. But on certain occasions, they make bad decisions, and this is a book about a terrible crisis in a hospital that brought on some very bad decision making. Five Days at Memorial tells a heart-wrenching story, made even more poignant because it is all true. I fi...