Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (Unabridged)
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3.4 • 121 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
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 News
After 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 Star
WINNER: 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
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were stunned by this shocking exposé of what really happened at a New Orleans hospital during the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina. Author and physician Sheri Fink weaves the lived experiences of real-life heroes, victims, and everyone in between into her account of one hospital—Memorial Medical Center—as it comes under siege from flooding, power failure, and an angry public. Narrator Kirsten Potter seamlessly conveys the sense of urgency and despair of sleepless doctors, nurses, and administrators working relentlessly to triage hurt and dying patients while getting the runaround from their parent corporation and the U.S. government. Meticulously researched and full of heart-racing action, Five Days at Memorial is a chilling look at what can happen to our fragile healthcare system under the worst circumstances.
Customer Reviews
Is it nitpicky?
Good book, and for the most part, good reading—sprinkled with a noticeable number of mispronounced words and names. If you can get past that, I recommend this book as containing a topic worthy of consideration.
Lost audiobook
This was a great book. However, it has been removed from my library.
Interesting deep dive into ethics
This is a lengthy and detailed deep dive into the events in the days after hurricane Katrina. The author does their best to illustrate the through process and reasoning of medical professionals during the disaster. It’s a rough listen but I believe the events of Memorial provide some very important ethical questions and force professionals to take a hard look at triage during natural disasters.