Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink Review!

On Sale: September 10, 2013
Pages: 576 | ISBN: 978-0-307-71898-3
Published by : Crown

Where were you Monday 29 August 2005? I was getting ready to enter my fifth and final year of college when I saw the devastating news that Hurricane Katrina had hit New Orleans, and hit it hard. The days to come were some of the most awful we as a nation had experienced since September 11^th. But what many Americans were not aware of was what was happening in hospitals and nursing homes in New Orleans.

Years later, Sheri Fink has exposed details of exactly what occurred in the hospitals in New Orleans in the days following the storm, particularly Memorial Hospital.

Goodreads’ summary of her novel, Five Days at Memorial, is as follows:

In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid 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.

When I first heard about this book, I was excited to read it. Not only because New Orleans fascinates me, but because I remember Hurricane Katrina very vividly, even living thousands of miles away. New Orleans is a very unique city, to say the least. I traveled there in 2012 for a week and I was amazed at how tightknit the community is. There are two periods of time people refer to: before the storm and after the storm. We took a tour of the city and even seven years after the storm, there are still damaged properties, an incredible amount of homeless and displaced people from the storm, and even street signs and buildings to this day have watermarks.

Reading this book, not only was I brought back to the news coverage back in 2005, but I also went back to my own experience in NOLA. Watching the news coverage in 2005  made me very sad and hopeless for many NOLA citizens. The crime, the drownings, the lack of government aid, the mass confusion, and the cleanup. But what was new to me was the incredible struggles doctors, nurses, and patients experienced after the storm. Sheri Fink does an incredible job of writing a non-fiction book that is so factual and unbiased. Not once did I hear her own opinion of the decisions the doctors made because she allows each reader to come to their own conclusions. Given the desperate times, were the decisions the doctors made correct? You decide; Fink only gives you the facts. Given the fact that the hospital had no electricity, no security, no telephones, barely any rescue resources, would you have made the same decisions? You decide; Fink only gives you the facts. Do you agree with charging any doctor or nurse with a crime, given the situation, especially after reading that in the mass miscommunication between the owner of the hospital, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and anyone else involved, they believed rescue would happen sooner than it did? Same. It’s your decision. Sheri Fink allows readers to draw their own conclusions, which is great.

I, as a reader, have an opinion after reading this book. After Hurricane Katrina hit, this hospital suffered many setbacks. Most, unfathomable, unimaginable. These doctors and nurses are incredible heroes in my opinion. Some sacrificed rescue to stay on with their patients. Some had brought their beloved pets to the hospital after being told it was a safe refuge and rescue was on the way. Most, if not all, pets were euthanized given lack of food and water and they were suffering. Some patients are also thought to have been euthanized, but in order to not give away details of the book, I beg that you read it with an open mind and put yourselves in the shoes of these heroes, the doctors and nurses of Memorial Hospital.

I can only hope Sheri Fink wins multiple awards for her research and telling of the story of the doctors and nurses and other employees at Memorial Hospital. Hurricane Katrina got a lot of coverage in 2005, and it still does, but some things are swept under the rug. Like the situation at Memorial.

Great book. Great people. Great city. I encourage you to remember the victims of this tragedy, and as a reader if you were personally affected by this storm, to take action in some way to make sure the same events never happen again during a natural disaster. Lastly, next time you plan a vacation, take NOLA into consideration. You will be amazed and inspired after visiting a city like New Orleans.

A copy of the book was provided for review and was not monetarily compensated for the review.

...guest reviewer, Kara Kelly