Nada A. reviewed Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital on + 1397 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Review first posted on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2013/09/five-days-at-memorial.html
Five Days at Memorial brings to life the events at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the five days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the philosophical, moral, ethical and legal battle that ensued after.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, about 2,000 patients were evacuated from Memorial Medical Center, and over 45 bodies were found at the hospital. Several of the deceased were found to have large doses of pain medications in their system - doses large enough to be lethal. It was alleged that the doctors at Memorial, Dr. Anna Pou in particular, had euthanized patients. In 2006, a case was brought to the grand jury against Dr. Pou. After months of investigation, the grand jury failed to indite.
This book documents these in two distinct portions. The first is a reconstructed story of those five days - the water, the lack of sanitation and power, the evacuations, the decisions as to which patients could not be evacuated. The second part begins with the initial inklings that the decisions made at Memorial may not have been in the best interests of the patients. It takes the reader through the details of the ensuing investigation, the charges to the grand jury, and the ultimate decision of the grand jury to not indite. The final few pages present the reaction of different people involved to the grand jury decision.
Sheri Fink is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. She brings those investigative skills to this book. In the author's note, she points out that the research for the book took place over the course of two years and included over 500 interviews. The biggest issue with the book is its length and the extreme detail included. The book itself begins with a five page long list of "selected individuals" who are part of this history. I found myself sometimes getting lost in who the people were and then getting mired down in the details. Eventually, I found myself skimming through the details to follow the main thread of the investigation.
*** Reviewed for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program ***
Five Days at Memorial brings to life the events at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the five days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the philosophical, moral, ethical and legal battle that ensued after.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, about 2,000 patients were evacuated from Memorial Medical Center, and over 45 bodies were found at the hospital. Several of the deceased were found to have large doses of pain medications in their system - doses large enough to be lethal. It was alleged that the doctors at Memorial, Dr. Anna Pou in particular, had euthanized patients. In 2006, a case was brought to the grand jury against Dr. Pou. After months of investigation, the grand jury failed to indite.
This book documents these in two distinct portions. The first is a reconstructed story of those five days - the water, the lack of sanitation and power, the evacuations, the decisions as to which patients could not be evacuated. The second part begins with the initial inklings that the decisions made at Memorial may not have been in the best interests of the patients. It takes the reader through the details of the ensuing investigation, the charges to the grand jury, and the ultimate decision of the grand jury to not indite. The final few pages present the reaction of different people involved to the grand jury decision.
Sheri Fink is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. She brings those investigative skills to this book. In the author's note, she points out that the research for the book took place over the course of two years and included over 500 interviews. The biggest issue with the book is its length and the extreme detail included. The book itself begins with a five page long list of "selected individuals" who are part of this history. I found myself sometimes getting lost in who the people were and then getting mired down in the details. Eventually, I found myself skimming through the details to follow the main thread of the investigation.
*** Reviewed for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program ***
Nancy A. (Chocoholic) reviewed Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital on + 291 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book is a little bit natural disaster, little bit medical drama, and a whole lot of true crime drama. Being a booklover of all three of the aforementioned genres, I was drawn to this book. I found the history of the hospital and the recounting of events up to and during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe intriguing but the legal manuveuring and incessant debates of right and wrong to be too, too much. I was considering putting the book down and walking away from it because of the lengthy debates and legal posturing that was going on. As the book starts to wind down, the reader is able to guess what the legal outcome was. This was overall an interesting book, but overly long.
