Review: Five Days at Memorial

I knew Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink would be a difficult one to get through. This is a thoroughly researched, excellently written account of what happened at Memorial Medical Center during and directly after Hurricane Katrina.

From the introduction on, each page brought new horrors that evoked such strong emotions - anger, frustration, disbelief - that it was impossible to read for long periods of time. Simply put, the rescue of those survivors in the city of New Orleans was a major clusterf**k. One can only hope that lessons were learned from this horrific tragedy for future disasters.

As I began to read, I found it easy to pass judgement on the participants and decision makers at Memorial. But at some point I started to think about what I would have done in a similar situation. Would I have acted as heroically as the nurses (they were heroes in the midst of the most abominable conditions)? If I were a doctor experiencing days without sleep, no power or water, in unbearable heat - what decisions would I have made? Would I have even stayed to help the patients (many did not)?  Five Days of Memorial brings these ethical issues to the forefront. It's a brutal look.

The second part of the book describes the investigation and legal proceedings against involved doctors, hospital staff, and hospital corporation.  As I was thinking about this book (I'm telling you, this one is going to stay with you), I checked out some Wikipedia info. There was a link to a very interesting website full of rebuttals to the book and raises questions about Ms. Fink's research methods. One page of the site contains testimonials to one of the doctor's dedication to her patients. This wasn't in question; euthanizing people without patient/family permission was.

I've rethought my rating system, saving five stars for those books I think should be read by everyone. Five Days at Memorial is a five star read.  Thank you to Blogging for Books for my review copy.

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