Five Days at Memorial

Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

By: Sheri Fink

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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

©2013 Sheri Fink (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

2014, Carnegie Medal, Short-listed

2013, Los Angeles Times Book Prizes—Current Interest—Winner

2014, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Winner

2015, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, Winner

2014, Ron Ridenhour Book Award, Winner

“The journalist and doctor Sheri Fink published a meticulous investigation of these deaths in the New York Times Magazine and on the Web site of ProPublica, in 2009. Her work won a Pulitzer Prize. And now comes the book. In Five Days at Memorial, the contours of the story remain the same, yet Fink imbues them with far more narrative richness, making the doctors seem both more sympathetic and more culpable. Fink also expands on the ethical conundrums, which have festered over time and seem to gain fresh urgency.” (The New Yorker)

"“That so many people, starkly divided over the question of whether crimes had been committed, come off as decent and appealing makes this book an absorbing read. Dr. Fink brings a shimmering intelligence to its many narrative cul-de-sacs, which consider medical, legal and ethical issues. . . . By reporting the depth of those gruesome hours in Memorial before the helicopters came, and giving weight to medical ethics as grounded in the law, Sheri Fink has written an unforgettable story. Five Days at Memorial is social reporting of the first rank.” (Jason Berry, The New York Times)

long winded

there's lots of extraneous information for the lay person but it is a good story.

Book is good. performance is not.

Listening to the reader pronounce New Orleans so wrong throughout this book was distracting and frustrating. I’m not implying she should know how locals pronounce it, but hearing the A in OrleAns is painful. My recommendation is to buy the book and read it yourself.

sueb

well written with an in-depth approach to critical occurrences, easy to help reader understand concurrent events. fast paced.

Great ethical book for those in healthcare

Upfront, I am a healthcare administrator by trade who is very familiar with emergency management. With that said, the first half of the book I found shockingly devastating. Not what was happening “to them”, but how woefully unprepared the hospital was for such a disaster. The details of those days were astounding. The second half of the book focused on the investigations and legislation that followed the hurricane, reading more as a textbook and list of facts. For those that are in healthcare, this is a must read to learn from historical mistakes. However, for those not in healthcare, be aware this book is very detail oriented, yet sometimes without context to fully understand “what right looks like.”

Extra material included

Certain books I’d like to follow along, I chose to fall along with his projector book because I want to be better informed. I noticed a lot more information was entailed in the audiobook which is great but disappointing that it was not included in the book. I would’ve liked to of heard the story line up better between the book and the audiobook. But overall I am not very disappointed. Extremely impressed very well done.

Difficult choices

As a nurse I followed the decisions they made and asked myself, what would I do. We know what to do when we have all the tools of modern medicine. But when disaster such as Katrina happens, choices aren't so certain. Maybe they should be.

The Devil is in the details

What did you love best about Five Days at Memorial?

This is the perfect description of a series of small failures that lead to unthinkable yet preventable situations. I loved the break down of information both clinical and emotional accounts.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I found myself researching other facts related to Katrina and the many accounts of emergency services and residents.

Any additional comments?

Anyone in the medical field, civil service or emergency management should read this book. The Devil is in the details as a paramedic I have seen first hand how important the ICS system is when the exchange of reliable information breaks down chaos and bad decisions result from bad information.

Appalling and enthralling

Would you listen to Five Days at Memorial again? Why?

Yes! It is almost hard to believe I heard right the first time. Did this really happen? Just a few years ago, in this supposedly "developed" country??

What was one of the most memorable moments of Five Days at Memorial?

The whole book blew my mind. As a health care provider it left me wondering how easily any other hospital could end up in the same situation. It makes you ask "what would I do?" and "how can we prevent this?"

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, it just shocked and amazed me in so many ways. I think the author did a great job presenting an unbiased view of what happened, and just making you analyze what we take for granted. It brings up so many ethical questions about what our priorities are and the conflict between business or selfish motivations and really providing care to people. I talked about this book to everyone.

Sad , but a story that needs to be told

The narrator did an excellent job with the New Orleans lingo and pronunciations. This is not an easy task. We have a lot of names that don't sound like they look. And this can be distracting from the story.
This is a tale that should never be repeated. It needs to be told.
What a horrible horrible time it was.

Terrifying account from Katrina

This was one of the hardest books I've ever read, but for all the right reasons. The story and performance put you right among the patients, nurses, and doctors involved, as well as the investigators in the aftermath of the hurricane. A must read for anyone in healthcare.