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Please post your comments about this book in this thread.

This I read a while ago. Very well written, although I'm still not sure how I feel or what I believe about what happened there during Katrina. I found the book so neutral (which is good I guess, objective factual reporting) that it didn't help me from an opinion. I'll be interested to hear what others think.

I hope to read this next spring. Have you read Zeitoun? Even though Zeitoun suffered some controversy of late, I found this book to be an incredible read.

Sera wrote: "I hope to read this next spring. Have you read Zeitoun? Even though Zeitoun suffered some controversy of late, I found this book to be an incredible read."

is evoking similar anger in me to that that I experienced with

I did not know that Eggers' book. I think I will try and read it now. I also read this year which I had purchased a few years ago during the National Book Fair in DC. I believe the individual from Zeitoun was covered in that book as well, although I don't remember the name. And of course, there were multiple people In boats in their neighborhoods in the book.

I read "Zeitoun" on a beach vacation in 2011. Very disturbing that this could happen in America...my older son (who was a criminal justice major) also read it in a couple days while we were there. It made for a really good discussion with young adults.

I am waiting for "Five Days at Memorial" from the library with several holds before mine. I will look for "The Great Deluge" too - thanks for the recommendation!

Yes, Victoria, thank you for the recommendation. I have the 5 days book but unfortunately won't be able to get to it for awhile. It looks amazing, though, and I can't wait!

Here was my review of the book 3/5 stars when I read it.

** spoiler alert **

I am annoyed with this author. She was clearly against Dr Pou and the nurses from the start. Not that I was for or against, I just was reading it with an open mind. I was anticipating that the author would go into Dr. Pou and the two nurses side but Ms Fink continue to prosecute without efficiently displaying the side of the accused.

What happened that day at Memorial, does anyone really know? Just hearsay and then those people left the floor. We can only assume but is assumption enough to convict? What was Dr Pou told prior to going to the floor with syringes? Was she told something that no one was privy to? Did she witness things that no one else saw? Was Dr. Pou exhausted from being there consecutive days with very minimal sleep and lack of food? Did Tenet officials neglect the staff, patients, and visitors at Memorial and let the them fend for themselves with no direction, relief, help? It is quite easy for us to sit on the outside and judge what we would do in this time of need but I find it hard to place Dr Pou, given her history of working for hours on her feet to help give hope to those with a terminal illness...to just say "hey, I want to leave today so let's just kill off these patients". IMO, that just does not fit the general idea of a doctor, muchless one that works for hours in the operating room to give a change of life to someone else. It just does not make sense. And perhaps I am giving her the benefit of the doubt.

About 70% into the book, I realized Ms Fink was not going to get into Pou's side of the story. So I did some searching and googling and found that Dr Pou highly discredits this book.

So as I continue to read the book though, here is Ms Fink casting judgment on Dr Pou and the other workers at Memorial. And yet Ms Fink goes to Haiti to do some journaling on disaster preparedness after the earthquake. She encounters one patient that basically needs continuous oxygen to breathe. Oxygen was running out in Haiti so the healthcare professionals make the somber decision that maybe the oxygen should go to people who only need it for a short period of time. And unfortunately, heartbreakingly, makes the decision to discontinue the oxygen on this woman-knowing that it is going to kill her. While doing so, making the arrangement for this woman to be transferred to a hospital (that also does not have much oxygen). So while this woman rides in the ambulance-Ms Fink rides along side her. Ms Fink knows what the plan is; the patient, not so much. Does Ms Fink, who basically claims that Dr Pou and the two nurses did not do justice thru moral and ethics calls of duty...does Ms Fink say anything to the doctors that discontinuing the oxygen is WRONG? Does Ms Fink inform the patient what the plan was? Does Ms Fink put her foot down and say this was unethical and wrong? No, she absolutely does not. So if this patient died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Ms Fink knowing the plan...should then, Ms Fink who is a journalist doing research on emergency preparedness-knowing "right from wrong" be prosecuted because she did nothing? We do not get into that because that particular "what if" did not happen infront of Ms Fink. That patient did not die in transport with Ms Fink sitting next to her. Emergency preparedness is full of "what ifs" or "maybes".

I have no doubt Hurricane Katrina was a learning lesson for all(unfortunately at the cost of many many lives; not just at Memorial), I just cannot wrap my head around someone doing this inhumanly and selfishly at this level-living in it. It is different if you're in the White House, sitting behind the desk in the Oval office to neglect the situation that is going on a thousand miles away.

Reading Mr Fink's book though, does show that many people-including doctors-need to be educated on health, healthcare decisions. For someone higher up to make the decision that those who are DNRs, just because they are DNRs, should be evacuated last-is wrong. To that doctor (who shockingly was not named in the book-which makes me see this as a tabloidish) who stated that those that are doing agnoal breathing are not in pain and don't need medication for comfort. Really?! That's almost like saying people who are in coma or near death, cannot hear you. We assume they can. We should also assume that just because people are agonal breathing, does not mean that they cannot feel?!

Perhaps, indeed, if we know a serious crisis is coming-maybe asking the patient or patient's family what they want to do helps. But then will that give them the impression that healthcare professionals will not care about their loved ones if they know they would prefer someone younger, or healthier, or ____ (fill in the blank) to be helped over them? As a healthcare professional it is a catch 22 and such a fine line all the way around.

Bottom line, in 2005, in America. The aftermath of Katrina and the help for Katrina victims should not have went down the way it went down. The city of New Orleans, especially in the poorer neighborhoods were neglected. President Bush is to blame, FEMA is to blame, emergency preparedness is to blame, people who did not heed the evacuation notices are to blame because they wanted to stay or had no means of leaving. And as I close the book, I wonder, I wonder, if bringing Dr Pou, the two other nurses at Memorial, and other hospitals and skilled nursing facilities...if bring them to court was to try to remove the blame from the company, the city, the state, the nation, the President, FEMA...if it helped removed the blame on them and put a focus on someone else, that the heat would be taken off?!? You have to wonder....

I just finished this and thought it was quite good. If I divide the book into three sections (1) Katrina, 2) the gathering of evidence and the legal process and 3) the bioethical considerations and what hospitals are doing now, I found the first and third sections totally gripping, but felt like the middle section dragged. Pauline, I read your review with interest - I didn't get the sense that Fink was against Pou at all. I felt like Pou and the nurses were portrayed pretty sympathetically. I ended up feeling like it would be wrong to judge without having lived through it too. A good lesson for life in general I guess!