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A review by tomato_bisque
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
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.
The book brings up ethical conundrums about how we should ration care in times of crisis. There are not easy answers.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Police brutality, Chronic illness, and Grief