Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-ravaged Hospital

The upshot of my reading this superb book is I am going to ask our upper administration to read Five Days at Memorial. Then I plan to be nosey and find out what are the plans for care for our emotionally fragile patients after the shaking stops.

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I am feeling very passionate right now about making certain there is a plan for the care of our patients afterwards, and that there is an organized well worked out evacuation program prepared now, before we need it. Where will we go? How will we get meds? How will we tell families where their loved one is? What will we do with the few patients who are dangerous? I thank Ms Fink for opening this nurse's eyes to the potential for horrific things happening to my patients.

Because of this book, I am getting involved to prepare as best I can for what I hope never happens. It is also an invaluable eye opener for those who have loved ones with chronic illness, who could face the same fate as the poor souls in LifeCare or Memorial hospital. This book is a life changer. I will say I was surprised by the legal findings.

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink

But I understand how they came to be. I will do my very best to protect my patients from a similar fate, by preparation. Spending most of my life as an ICU nurse I could not stop reading this book until I found out what happened in the end. I was outraged at the way these healthcare professionals were treated while doing the best they could under an extremely difficult situation.

It was eye opening to see how many people view things differently than most people who deal with the critically ill and life and death situations daily. It's very easy for people to look back in hindsight and play armchair quarterback. These professionals did not know the things we know now, such as how long it would actually take to be rescued among many other things. It's an eye opening account of what can happen under scarcity situations. People in the United States are not accustomed to scarcity of resources especially those involving electricity and gasoline and the tough decisions that accompany these scarcities.

Puerto Rico is facing some of these issues now following the recent hurricane. It's food for thought as this is not the last time these types of decisions will have to be made in the USA and around the world. Fascinating book that looks at the situation from all angles and is proof positive that communication is essential in a disaster. There were many lessons in this story which was well written. One thing that became abundantly clear is that people who get to the top levels of any organization do not always get there because they are the most qualified person.

The one talent that they all seem to possess is the ability to point their finger at someone else and blame them for any mistakes that were made.

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They also have very short memories for certain events or certain things that they said. When making decisions in a chaotic disaster situation, it would be helpful to have at least a minimal understanding of the job that the people you are directing do. Not just their name and title but what they actually do and the environment that they do it in. See all 1, reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.

Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-ravaged Hospital.

Set up a giveaway. The first part, titled "Deadly Choices", focuses on the events that occurred at Memorial Medical Center over the "five days" referred to in the book's title: August 28 — September 1, The second part, titled "Reckoning", discusses the legal and political ramifications of Memorial's response to the crisis and especially the decisions to euthanize patients.

Anna Pou and two intensive care nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, all three of whom were charged with second-degree murder following allegations that they had administered lethal doses of morphine to some patients. Critical reviews of Five Days at Memorial were mostly positive. Jason Berry of The New York Times commended the "shimmering intelligence" of Fink's discussion of the events and their ethical issues, and summarized the book as "social reporting of the first rank".

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Nuland , felt the book displayed "masterly reporting and the glow of fine writing" and offered particular praise for the tone and language of Fink's writing. Saul in The Seattle Times commended Fink's ability to produce a "compelling and revealing account" of events despite limited access to evidence such as investigative reports and Pou's testimony, [9] while the Star Tribune 's Curt Schleier described Five Days at Memorial as "an important book that will make your blood boil no matter which side of the issue you support".

A more negative review came from Julia M. Klein of The Boston Globe , who found the book to be "overly long and detailed, sometimes hard to follow, and without a real narrative payoff" and felt that Fink's conclusions were presented more clearly in her original magazine article than in the book.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, Sweltering in tropical heat, darkness and an appalling stench, staff smashed windows to let in air.

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In some parts of the hospital oxygen supplies ran out, while in others staff were passing around tanks like bongs. It was rumoured — falsely — that martial law had been declared, and outside there were sounds of gunfire. Fink has spent six years on this colossal book, conducting more than interviews, and she supplies potted biographies for most of her huge cast. Former New Orleans mayor guilty of bribery in Katrina recovery. Hurricane Katrina officers sentenced to years.

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Evacuation, by helicopter and boat, was chaotic, and for reasons that remain unclear the hospital decided that the able-bodied were to be evacuated first and Do Not Resuscitate patients last. In addition to their gun collections, a number of employees had brought along their pets, and as these were excluded from evacuation they were given lethal injections.

When a disaster mortuary team arrived on September 11 it discovered 45 corpses, many containing unusual quantities of morphine, and the Louisiana Attorney General brought murder charges against a senior Memorial doctor and two nurses. More instructive, perhaps, are her comparisons.