Book: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital
Author: Dr. Sheri Fink
Narrator (if applicable): n/a
Release date (if applicable): Published
Synopsis: Physician turned journalist, Sheri Fink, investigates and presents the story of the catastrophe of Memorial Medical Center during the days of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath that followed including the prosecution of several key players.
My rating: 2 Stars
My opinion: While the writing was engrossing, I think the author failed to make her "case" regarding the status of hospital systems responding to catastrophic disasters/events. She applied a one man syndrome in "proving" her theory. While it was clear that every step along the way in Tenet's/Lifecare's responses to Katrina were cluserflucks, including at corporate levels; One needs to remind the author that there a numerous other health systems in the NOLA region who had no issues, INCLUDING another "for profit" health system that followed their own disaster plan and evacuated their patients. We have seen hospital systems in other natural and man-made disasters which have responded to their disaster plans without incident, including major medical centers development of emergency departments with the abilities to respond to bio-terrorist incidents.
Second, in a book that was basically a "just the facts, ma'am" book, the author suddenly diverts onto the topic on euthanasia in European countries in the event of catastrophic events and its applications in the US and author opinion. Huh???
Third, the book had a feeling of being weighed down with too much "dialog" that, at times, made it a very boring read-almost too detailed oriented.
Overall, I felt that this book was drama-central by a physician journalist to support her own agenda and she found a case that fit it.
Source: Crown Publishing
Stand Alone or Part of a Series: Stand Alone
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