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

"This is a gripping recounting of what happened in an over-burdened, storm-ravaged New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina . Memorial was cut off from outside help, without the supplies, personnel and equipment to handle the patients that inundated the hospital during the floods. Decisions had to be made about the allocation of resources that led to accusations of euthanasia. This is a book about moral ambiguity in the face of disaster, about the decisions that one makes at moments of crisis when it seems impossible to make choices. Based on hundreds of interviews and the review of mountains of documents, Sheri Fink helps us better understand the calculations that we make under pressure. Hurricane Katrina was a pivotal moment. You have to remember that before 2005, the entire Homeland Security apparatus was focused on stopping threats like a recurrence of 9/11, in which 19 men weaponized four airplanes. It was all about counterterrorism. After Hurricane Katrina struck, we realized that we couldn’t save the nation from drowning. It changed the way we think about national security. National security is impacted by many threats: guns, opiates, pandemics and climate change. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter I think an independent after-action review is necessary because although many mistakes made during the COVID-19 crisis are attributable to the present president, others are not. Do we need a bigger healthcare stockpile? How should we prepare the nation to shelter in place? Should we act alone on vaccine development? Thinking through the thorniest issues that cropped up during the COVID-19 crisis is absolutely necessary. I just don’t think it will happen under this administration."