Five Days at Memorial

We know all about Katrina here. I live west of New Orleans and Katrina was an object lesson for us.

I didn't know all about Memorial Hospital during Katrina, however. Living on the Texas Gulf Coast obligates me to read this story and learn and share the lessons from this book.

It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy, full of both heroism and suffering. It's a well-researched tragedy, told fairly, without bias, and I was left feeling great compassion for both the medical staff of the hospital as well as the patients and rescuers.

One of the best nonfiction reads of the year.

This book is both intriguing, and extremely hard to read. It's impossible to imagine your own reactions given the conditions the staff and patients had to survive in those five days, but also impossible to think you would make some of the same choices that were made. It brings up moral and ethical issues, and made me question the power and control that are given individuals over the right to life.

Really well written account of the tragedy of Memorial Hospital during Katrina. I thought it was especially accurate, fair and descriptive. It gave a good account of Dr Pou presenting both her incredible caring and dedication as well as her blindness to what she had done. The ending chapter talking about how other organizations are trying to learn from Katrina and how best to triage during extreme situations was interesting.