Hey Everyone,
I am going to review the book, "Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital," by Sheri Fink. This book was extremely well written coming from a correspondent from the New York Times. This book was based off of a previous article written by Sheri Fink called "Deadly Choices at Memorial," which was co-published by ProPublica, and The New York Times Magazine. This article was published on August 27, 2009. The article mentioned above and this book has won multiple awards, which made this book even better to read. This was an investigative report on the events and choices that were made during Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Hospital and it discusses the consequences of those choices in the events that took place after the hurricane. It is a story of neglect, bad decisions and choices, life and death decisions, survival. It discusses all the factors that led to the unpreparedness of Memorial during the disaster. It talks in depth about all the main people involved so it was easy to gather who they were. Memorial hospital flooded and lost power, patients and employees were living in horrible, unsafe conditions. It was an emergency like no other, and discussed how the doctors, nurses, patients and their family members, politicians, government agencies, and the CEO's of Memorial responded to emergencies. It made me think the hypothetical what if that was me? What would I do? Decisions were made to evacuate the "more able" people first and in saving the sickest and most vulnerable to last. Then decisions were made to inject this last group of patients with a lethal dose of morphine, to quicken their deaths. The last section of this book discussed and addressed the ethical concerns of this situation, and the repercussions of it.
This book definitely went on my favorites list, as in why I rated this book 4.5 stars out of 5. This book was very well written, in that while I was reading it I felt as if I was there watching everything happen. It is very detailed and goes into much depth it discussed every angle of the situation and left nothing out. Yes there were some details and descriptions that I felt were unnecessary to the point where it did feel a little wordy at times. However, I do see why this was done in order to portray the whole truth, for transparency, to leave nothing out. It was a hard book to read, due to the nature of the story, it was heartbreaking. It was a very emotional book. I really thought this book did an excellent job presenting the whole story without any judgement or bias from the author, she told the story as it was. She did such a great job of this that there were times in this book where I was questioning how it was possible for the author to write this story without including her opinion and beliefs. It was a mystery kept throughout the book, and was finally revealed in the epilogue. Again this book brings up a controversial but important topic of euthanasia. I am sure everyone has their own beliefs and opinions and I am sure everyone feels different. This book will bring your beliefs and opinions to light and will attempt to question your beliefs.
I highly recommend this book to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. I want to thank Blogging For Books, Sheri Fink (the author), and Penguin Random House (the publisher) for giving me the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Until the Next Page,
Jill
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