Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

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

9 reviews

emiliamaria76's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Grief, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Dementia, Death, Medical trauma, Animal death, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Chronic illness

tjdewald's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

The story is good but the story is not one of the author’s. She is simply retelling what happened. It’s a fascinating story of ethics and disaster but it is so slow. I felt the ending in the epilogue could have been better. It didn’t feel “done”. I’m glad I read the book, learned about medical procedures in relation to disasters, and was able to ponder the ethical battle of medical assisted euthanasia. I would recommend this book to people who are genuinely interested in ethics, disaster research/response, and tough medical dilemmas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Ableism, Blood, Death, Classism, Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, Terminal illness, Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Medical content, Cancer, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Body horror, Drug use, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Body shaming

tiredenglishteacher's review

dark emotional tense

3.75

Important book. Provides context for the disaster, and many different perspectives on what happened. Informative about an atrocity. Unbelievable that many of the main players are still practicing. Major con: this book is regularly fatphobic for no real reason. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Moderate: Fatphobia

quiet_reader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Medical content, Vomit, Fatphobia, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Police brutality

heatherilene's review

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Cancer, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, and Terminal illness

tomato_bisque's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

The first third is a fast paced account of what occured over the day of the hurricane and the tragedies that followed in the days after. The later part of the book slows down and discusses the aftermath (investigations, rebuilding, political ramifications.) This might have been more compelling pre-covid but the fact that the US medical system and government cannot handle any sort of large scale disaster should not be surprising anymore. 

The book brings up ethical conundrums about how we should ration care in times of crisis. There are not easy answers.

Being unfamilar with the case, I was honestly kinda surprised how general public and the medical field rallied around Pou. Thank god the book expressed the dissenting points of views from other doctors because I thought I was going insane.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Police brutality, Chronic illness, and Grief

hurricaneflora's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, and Ableism

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, and War

alyssawatsonlee's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

3.0

The first half of the book is a very interesting account of what it was like inside the hospital during and after Katrina. The second half is an overly detailed, arduous description of the investigation that took place afterwards. While the ethics are interesting, this book could have benefited from a better editor. No one cares about every single detail of the investigation down to the car the investigator drives. I would have found an exploration of the government/administration failures, and a discussion of how this horrific event impacted (or should have impacted) emergency management much more useful, and was entirely left to the afterword. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Excrement, and Medical content