Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital in Around the Year in 52 Books

Apr 01, 2020 Graceann rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, general-nonfiction, popsugar-2020, aty-2020, reading-women-2020

Never have I used the word "shitshow" so many times in reading one book. Not about the book itself, but the topic. Because that's what the response to Hurricane Katrina was. There really is no other word for it. Well, okay, if you want to get dainty about it, you could say "debacle," or "catastrophe." I maintain that the most accurate word, however, is the first one I use.

In the five days that include Katrina and the immediate aftermath, the staff at Memorial had to contend with loss of electri Never have I used the word "shitshow" so many times in reading one book. Not about the book itself, but the topic. Because that's what the response to Hurricane Katrina was. There really is no other word for it. Well, okay, if you want to get dainty about it, you could say "debacle," or "catastrophe." I maintain that the most accurate word, however, is the first one I use.

In the five days that include Katrina and the immediate aftermath, the staff at Memorial had to contend with loss of electricity (the power supply was situated, in a hospital in a floodplain, in the basement), no communications (phones stopped working immediately and all anyone working inside the hospital heard were rumors and gunshots), and no idea of when rescue would be taking place, or what form that rescue would take. Meanwhile, the plumbing stopped working, the heat exacerbated the existing health problems of the patients and the staff worked on very little rest in monstrous, humid heat.

By the time it was all over, there were 45 dead bodies in that hospital. Several of those people were still alive as the helicopters and boats were making pretty much nonstop rescues on the final morning, but died in a short period of time on that final day. There is so much that went wrong here that Dr. Fink needs around 600 pages to detail the failures, all that followed, and how little has been learned.

There is a great deal of blame to go around, here. So. Much. Blame. Sadly, none of that will bring those 45 people back. Sheri Fink tries to be evenhanded in her approach here, but she clearly wants us to have sympathy for the doctors and their difficult choices. What I got from the entirety of the story, though, is how much better the less prosperous hospital, Charity, fared during the crisis. They lost patients, too, but they'd practiced for just this, tried to maintain their usual routines of rest, therapy and rounds and, crucially, were used to getting by on very little, so they were able to "make do" a bit more successfully than the comparatively better-heeled Memorial. As is so often proven just by living life, the poor make shrift to share. Lord knows they have few other choices.

Meanwhile, across a footbridge was a building with electricity and places for rest. How do we know? Because that's where some of the doctors and most of the execs hung out when it just got too "uncomfortable" at the hospital itself. Not the patients. Not the nursing staff. There are people who are literally dying for lack of a respirator just a gurney roll away, but by all means, you have your nap in the comfy chair, Lord Muck. One person who was discussed as having rested there was particularly loathsome to me. He routinely worried about being "the only white face" in a crowd and about how threatened he was by "those animals" around the hospital. We are even expected to believe that, when there is finally rescue and he is on a conveyance with several other people, one sitting across from him (who happens to be black, surprise surprise) is eyeballing his bracelet for the purpose of theft. Yeah, folks have just been rescued off of their rooftops and are begging for food and meds, but their first thought is stealing a new-age crappy bracelet off of whitey. Puh. Leeze. When the crap hit the fan after so many dead were found, all he could worry about was whether the other staff would sell him out. I've worked with a lot of selfish professionals in my life; I'm so eternally grateful that this asshat wasn't one of them.

I'm afraid Dr. Fink loses me a bit in the last 1/3 of the book. She gets lost in the weeds regarding definitions of euthanasia vs palliative care, and what's criminal vs what's compassionate. There's also a great deal of discussion regarding other cities studying what went wrong during Katrina (though I can't imagine who has that much time) in order to avoid replicating mistakes. There's even a fascinating, short, piece about hospitals in New York researching how to make sure they have enough respirators if there's ever a pandemic to contend with. This was especially compelling given that I read it in the heart of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the hospitals in New York City are dealing with this problem right now.

In the end, though, I found there to be far more coverage of the doctors involved in this, when after a while, I stopped caring about how they felt about having their decision to euthanize patients questioned. I was far more concerned about the trauma, the healing, and the next steps for the patients who survived, and for their families, who put their loved ones in Memorial for safety with the expectation that they would be coming home. How are they doing? How is their PTSD? Is anyone paying attention to their advocacy? Or are they being ignored now, too? ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2014 Michelle Gragg rated it really liked it

Shelves: must-reads

This book is excellent. And infuriating. As an RN I am appalled by the events described. I only gave it 4 stars because I do feel like it leads the reader to a conclusion that may be biased. I did not feel like the people in the book were villianized. Things I would have liked to see more of in this book: details and comparisons between memorial and Charity hospitals, more medical details, and more patient and family interviews. I did not know a lot about Katrina and its devastation before readi ...more

Like · see review

Sep 17, 2013 Cat rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction, pulitzer-prize-winners

Thank God I'm done with this book. It was like Vietnam. I just kept sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire. "Well I've already read 350 pages, what's another 150 more." She seems to have no grasp of the trivial detail vs. the larger contextual picture. I don't care what hairstylist the accused doctor went to before she went to her fundraiser or what the weather was like at the rally. I was interested in the larger questions surrounding the events, and she does go into detail about the bioet ...more

Like · see review

Nov 11, 2013 Ryan Mac rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

A very thorough account of the events at Memorial Hospital during and just after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans along with the legal aftermath of decisions made. I thought that the second part dragged on longer than it needed to. Also, while this book does appear to be well researched, it was very clear to me that this author was not a neutral reporter of information, especially in that second half. Still, it was interesting and brought up some good points/questions on how to handle situation ...more

Like · see review