Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (ALA Notable Books for Adults) Hardcover – September 10, 2013

Simplistically, this is a story of how a hospital full of doctors, family and patients dealt with and sustained through Hurricane Katrina. However, the story that focuses mainly on Dr. Anna Pou is a moral conundrum that is as divisive a subject as I can imagine.Sherri Fink treads through public files, personal testimonies and witness accounts to bring us a wide look at what took place at a New Orleans hospital as chaos ensued and governmental and corporate response languished. This lack of emergency response seems to be caused by a deadly combination of negligence and incompetence by the staff of the hospital and everyone they seemed to reach out to. Consequently, important decisions had to be made under stress , exhaustion and unbearable heat: Who among us gets to leave/receive critical care first? The oldest? The sickest? The ones with the best chance to survive? The ones with best quality of life chance? Triage was set up and days passed by slowly as people's lives hung in the balance.Thus enters Dr. Anna Pou. Fink goes into incredible detail of her background and character and gives us a sympathetic/ hard working, no-nonsense type of doctor who delegates authority amongst the nurses and charges at Memorial. Ultimately, it seems according to the book, that Dr.Pou would make important decisions to euthanize certain patients in what seems like a badly-kept secret that morally divided the staff. This is the central focus of the book and how you feel about Dr. Pou's actions will polarize the reader and have you second-guessing your original feelings.I must say, immediately I felt that euthanasia was completely acceptable. I believe that if somebody is to the point where pain and suffering renders somebody to the point that they are alive in the most basic definition only, I feel it acceptable for them to want to end their life. And, I did indeed feel this way throughout the book about Dr. Pou until you realize that these particular patients never consented. And there in lies the rub: euthanasia should never be put in the hands of the doctor without consent of the patient or family. Furthermore, in the case of Mrs. Burgess and Emmett Everett, not only did they not wish to die, they very much wanted to live. The fact that they were killed on the same day the mass evacuation was taking place only makes it more the tragedy.The second half of the book focuses on gathering evidence , the politics of prosecuting staff that risked their lives and otherwise behaved heroically during a disaster that most , including myself, got to watch from a distance. It's riveting and I think Fink presents every possible ethical possibility on what happened and what COULD have happened. I feel like she was objective and fair and if anything, only really painted LA attorney general in a negative light.It's no doubt controversial and there seems to be two camps: those that think that Dr. Pou is an amazing doctor who appears to have killed (with help of other staff, mind you) patients, even if ending their suffering was paramount in her mind. The other half is those that take Fink's reporting as factual. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between , but to those who deride Fink as trying to make a buck by sensationalizing , you have to consider both sides. Dr. Pou obviously has a lot to lose, including her freedom, if these accounts are accurate. She would literally have gotten away with murder. I don't, however, think she meant to kill with malice but rather with compassion. What does make me lose respect for her , though, is her continuing to lie about small details to exaggerate the conditions of the hospital ( lack of water, food, helicopters not being able to fly at night). If there was more of a consensus, or even if there was a moral consensus taken before she made the injections, I'd sleep better. Unfortunately for the victims, it seems like their deaths were carried out clandestinely. Meanwhile, their was an equal conspiracy of disapprovers who did nothing but express outrage over the possible euthanasia amongst themselves while not lifting a finger to stop it.I could go on and on about this with points both for and against all parties involved and not come within a mile of satisfaction.It's an astounding read that will test your preconceived notions of right and wrong and I'm not quite sure I'm qualified to judge anybody during a situation as hellish as this.

This was a fascinating read! It is absolutely wild what they went through and how they had to survive. It really challenges your morals and challenges you to think about what you would do if you were in that position.

In nursing school, our teacher told us about this series on Apple TV. I googled it to see if it was only available on Apple TV and it is. Since I don’t have Apple TV, I decided to buy the book and read it first, now I’ll do a free trial of Apple TV to watch it. It was a great book.

A fascinating look at the people and events inside Memorial hospital in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. I was at one and the same time both shocked by and sympathetic to the life-or-death decisions that doctors and nurses made. The reader is compelled to come to grips with the question of whether euthanasia of DNR patients occurred and, if so, whether it was callous or merciful, and was it "right". Medical ethics then and today are clearly in focus, and the reader will come away from this book with questions of morality that will haunt them. This book is a "page-turner" on many levels. You owe it to yourself to read this book.

This book brings much to attention of which I was previously unaware. The descriptions of the days following Katrina from the hospital were good, but very insular. The number of characters in the book is daunting, and character development is a problem, though the focus switches to Dr. Pou from the patient perspective midway through the book. Though I was expecting a very strong book given the interview that I had seen with the author on The Daily Show, I found it confusing and difficult to comprehend. While clearly the situation was an atrocity, parts of the book seem to contradict the conditions. The first half of the book is difficult to get through, but the second half is a much easier read.I found the writing tough to get through at times, but I felt that the author was extremely well informed. In many ways, I felt I was reading three different books...first, the description of the disaster itself...second, a fairly confusing recital of who's who with the doctors and their reactions and responsibilities...third, the legal battle that ensued after the moral battle. I simply did not feel that the book was cohesive in its direction; that it went hither and yon in the retelling. When I read of doctors taking refuge in the cancer center, I mostly wondered why there had been no discussion of that earlier in the book.I wanted to learn about this episode, and feel that I got that much out of the book. As a warning, it serves its purpose well. But it was a confusing and sometimes difficult (not because of the subject matter, but because of the way it was organized) read.

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It was less riveting than I was hoping. Written for general audiences, so nurses reading it may feel like it’s missing points of interest.

I found this book so interesting. It's a story about how life can unfold in a crisis, and the choices people are faced with. Also, I saw that values can differ, according to occupation and the current circumstances. How do we apply one 'value' lens to the other? And how do we learn from extreme events, or do we? Fascinating stuff. The story was told in a clear, readable manner with compassion and humanity.

Excellent book. Amazon is awesome too. 😀

I found this book compelling. As a Registered Nurse practising on the Gulf Coast for forty years I know the system and the terrain and the weather risks. As a Nursing Administrator I had to make decisions about evacuation of patients, transportation and the care of staff during these conditions. I must say I cried and found the situation harrowing. I thank God that I never had to make the ultimate decision these Nurses and Doctors had to contemplate.I have thought long and hard about this and I seriously believe, that in this world of severe weather issues, infectious epidemics and terrorism all over the world, we the healthcare providers must have urgent dialogue about the final triage. Don't leave it to the desperate people left on site to make these decisions.God Bless the patients and staff involved. God help those people at the corporation who failed to act!!

This book contains and emotionally gripping and fascinating tale. It is very well research, and the writing style makes you feel like you're a fly on the wall for some of the most troubling moments the hospital (and its staff) have faced. You read about the conditions, the difficult decisions, acts of possible euthanasia, and the follow up and investigations. The book is more than just a telling a story; it takes a look at all sides of the issue(s) and really made me think about how the staff acted throughout the disaster and how I'd handle something like that in their situation.The book has a few flaws (I feel like the author clearly favors some of the people involved, especially the post-hurricane investigators), but it is a gripping tale of investigative reporting.