Five Days at Memorial
Books | Social Science / Disease & Health Issues
3.8
(235)
Sheri Fink
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ • A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice—from a Pulitzer Prize–winning physician and reporter“An amazing tale, as inexorable as a Greek tragedy and as gripping as a whodunit.”—Dallas Morning NewsA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the CenturyAfter Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink, unspools the mystery, bringing us inside a hospital fighting for its life and into the most charged questions in health care: which patients should be prioritized, and can health care professionals ever be excused for hastening death?Transforming our understanding of human nature in crisis, Five Days at Memorial exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals how ill-prepared we are for large-scale disasters—and how we can do better.ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Entertainment Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City StarWINNER: National Book Critics Circle Award, J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Ridenhour Book Prize, American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award, National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award
AD
Buy now:
More Details:
Author
Sheri Fink
Pages
592
Publisher
Crown
Published Date
2013-09-10
ISBN
0307718980 9780307718983
Community ReviewsSee all
"Fink describes the harrowing conditions following hurricane Katrina in Memorial hospital. Actions taken by doctors and nurses reveal the devastating results of poor planning. Fink attempts to answer the question: how can we be better prepared for disaster? The Apple TV+ miniseries is well made, but fails to communicate the intended theme of this book as effectively as the source material. Read the book. "
Creighton Brown
"You feel like you were really there and are shocked by how easily you can assume the worst. Great to experience what happened during Katrina and what happened after. "
Cheryl Cann
"Not a perfect book and could be dry, but gave me lots of information on an event I hadn't heard about before. I'm hoping to start nursing school in March and this book made me think a lot about someone's life, the field of medicine, and the ways the two can mix. I've mostly seen medicine favorably and I appreciated this bringing up arguments on the other side of that."
Kayla Stroup
"Every person should read this in order to better understand the moral dilemmas health care workers can be put in as well as the sacrifice they are willing to give in order to help your loved ones. Heavy discussions to be had after reading this one"
Darcy Newton
"This book does a good job of examining all of the events, factors, mistakes, and choices made at Memorial, without taking a moral stance, enabling the reader to come to their own conclusions. At the time of this review, we are three years into the COVID-19 pandemic and I am just about to graduate nursing school, so these facts may color my opinion of this work. I was 11 when Katrina hit, and my city absorbed many of the refugees displaced by the storm. I remember seeing the tragedy unfold on my TV screen, but somehow missed any coverage of the events at Memorial. This book was heartbreaking, and in retrospect, maddening. I cannot say whether what was done at Memorial was morally right or wrong. What I CAN say is that it's horrifying that 15 years later it seemed like we hadn't learned a thing. In 2005, Katrina showed how woefully unprepared we were to contend with massive disasters like hurricanes or pandemics, and we've done very little to rectify these deficiencies as evidenced by the near-collapse of American healthcare in 2020."
Aileen Donahue
"Such a terribly tragic story. I enjoyed reading this. "
Destiny Mampourian