Five Days At Memorial: Life And Death In A Storm-Ravaged Hospital (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Very thought-provoking journalistic book about the 5 days surrounding Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans (coincidentally, the hospital where I was born). During these 5 days, they lost power and had to deal with failing generators and the associated medical devices that therefore could not be run. No power, no air-conditioning (and sweltering conditions) and the prospects for rescue were completely uncertain. The book does a good job of depicting just how lawless and hopeless things were. For example, there were many rumors that the city was operating under martial law, but this was never true. There were also major fears of looting, and gunshots regularly heard.Given this chaotic setting, some questionable medical decisions were made regarding certain patients. The ones that were really bad off or really hard to move were a big problem, given no functioning elevators, and some of the rescuing helicopters that eventually appeared having limitations as to whom they might be willing to take. In one case, a very premature and sick infant was evacuated via helicopter on the lap of a doctor who had to hand-pump oxygen into its lungs. The baby survived, but just barely.Later it came out that several of these patients were given fatal doses of morphine and other drugs. The book delves into the facts that we know (i.e. not nearly enough - so much of what we know is only hearsay), and reports on many, many of the players' opinions. People varied in what they thought happened from "all these medical personnel were just doing their jobs to the best of their abilities", to "they murdered these people!". It's really left to the reader to decide what you think happened, amidst details that are murky at best. There is also a lot of interesting discussion about similar disasters that happened since, and whether or not we have learned anything. Also lots of discussion about medical ethics and euthanasia. A very interesting read. Three point five stars. My sum up: well researched, strong effort to be balanced and unbiased, raised some excellent moral discussion and thinking points, too long for me. This was the book I was supposed to be reading for my book group while I was vacationing. I was so on vacation before I even left town that I forgot to order it so, yup, I went to the discussion not having even cracked the cover. And was quite intrigued, enough to borrow another members copy and read it. This is investigative journalism that looks into the deaths of quite a few patients at Memorial hospital in the after match of Hurricane Katrina. I felt like the book handled things fairly. Conditions were bad but I have strong opinions about leaving this life and they don't jive with what what happened and what follows is less about the book and more about the incidents. You can point fingers all over the place and make your own decision but I believe these patients were euthanized and that it was wrong. I also felt that the legal proceedings for this case were fishy, stinky fishy. It felt like blowing off war crimes. It reminded me of excuse making that followed WWII. And the doctor and her attorney seem to have actively legislated for new laws to protect doctors for the decisions they make during disasters. Call me old fashioned or narrow minded or naive but I thought they already made those decisions when they took their oath as health care professionals. I cannot understand why they felt it necessary to overdose these patients, why they did not simply continue to keep them safely sedated and as comfortable as the circumstances allowed. If they had done so and the patients had expired during transport or before rescue arrived then everything would have been clear and transparent. To be fair, I was not there and I am not a doctor but I have been in some pretty scary emergency situations, high winds, without power for four days during the coldest of winter months, without heat, without electricity, without safe roads to travel, with so many trees down there was no way emergency assistance was coming any time soon ... you do the best you can with what you have until the situation resolves. I cannot imagine evacuating staff or healthy family, let alone myself, before the most fragile patients were safely away. Cannot. OK, pregnant staff, I'll go with that one but when people are entirely unable to care for themselves and it's your job to provide that care, you keep everyone as comfortable and safe as you can until help arrives, even if that puts you at risk. Were these women charged with homicide decent and caring health care professionals in their every day lives? I have no doubt but in my opinion their actions during that last day at Memorial were not heroic. Other hospitals coped, during Katrina and during other storms. We need to understand how and why and implement plans, with training and practice, to teach caregivers how to lead and serve. And I kept thinking to myself, wow, better be prepared and be prepared to take care of yourself and your neighbors because you sure can't depend on anyone else in a disaster. Rant over.
What do You think about Five Days At Memorial: Life And Death In A Storm-Ravaged Hospital (2013)?
Very biased account. Blames doctors for atrocities they were cleared of participating in.
—ab123
An outstanding work of journalism and a compelling read as well.
—soso
Amazing book. Everyone should. Sad that nothing will change.
—matlock
