Sheri Fink 'Five Days at Memorial'

Fink combines the sharp eye of a Pulitzer-winning journalist with the hard-won experience of a disaster-relief doctor to chronicle the events at New Orleans's Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina, and to raise questions about the country's handling of disaster. Under horrific conditions, Memorial's health-care workers saved those they could—and later faced charges about their treatment of the others.

[matts]

Hearing her talk about a possible pandemic where we'd have to ration ventilators is a bit haunting after going through Covid. Im an ICU nurse and it sounds like an impossible task what these people had to go through.

[elvishiekios]

Thank you dr Fink for explaining the dilemmas in the hospital during Katrina!

[missmaam]

Here after seeing the movie trailer of this tragic event. It’s hard to believe this really happened 😞

[chayoluna]

What blows my mind is the lack of accountability from the administrators who run the hospitals.

[Marc]

She's so intellectual & such an awesome speaker, I'd love to hear her talk @ my University

[BrodyMulligan]

Extremely brilliant author and professional.

[mbailey]

Very knowledgeable speaker on a very challenging subject...would love to hear her speak in person.

[tammygouletschrader]

I'm sorry that this happened to Memorial and Charity Hospitals. It's unreal how the government let you all down.

[leslielafleur]

No situation in America compared to Katrina at that time. If you don’t do our job, don’t judge us. Reverse triage is a common practice in war/mass casualty incidence… as for the amount of medication or choice of drugs, those are common combinations and not exceptional doses. I wish someone would pay as much attention to the lawlessness of the city and lack of appropriate response to help all hospitals and people. Do not make people who already agonize over not being able to do their job properly because of limited resources. Dr. Fink I have a hard time believing you are an Ivy League physician and could not understand that a culmination of issues not just one issue, I.e., medication contributed to the death of so many.

[Elena-erzp]

21:40 ration ventilators is exactly what happened during the pandemic.

[teresathayn]

I'm from and still live in South Louisiana. I'm never shocked or surprised when people in the path of deadly hurricanes are not evacuated! Politicians generally fail when it comes to disasters here. Everyone knew every person had to be evacuated before a cat 5 storm arrived! No one should ever attempt to "ride out" anything stronger than a small cat 3!! Those in power should have evacuated everyone of those patients and staff! Nursing home patients were also abandoned to die in Katrina too! It's wrong and everyone here knew that!! It was murder in my mind!!

[karincampbell]

I am a nurse, and cannot imagine what it must have been like either as a patient, a medical professional, a family member, volunteer, as they face this disaster. But I also know if I came upon an animal suffering, with no hope of help, I would have no problem ending their suffering with a high dose of medication. So why if we can easily end an animal’s suffering, why can we not end a human’s suffering? I am sure soldiers felt it was their duty to shoot a brother and then themselves when the thought of being taken as a prisoner was their option in times of war. I would rather go with an injection then lay there and linger, knowing my death was eminent. So I applaud those who had the courage to end their lives with as much dignity as possible.

[lowellmccormick]

How long can a nurse squeeze a manual ventilator? 1 hour? 24 hours? 5 days? How long can a juvenile manually squeeze a manual ventilator? What would the event have been like had the authorities listened to the U.S. Corp of Engineers in 1965 and put continuous levees at the lakefront rather than keep the miles of multiple outfall canal levees in place. It as those outfall canal levees that failed. This would have put water pumps at the lakefront instead of keeping them in the middle of the city, effectively bringing the Gulf of Mexico into the center of the city. Nothing happens in a vacuum and decisions made at one point in time have an effect on what happens years later. New Orleans has had terrible leadership for a long time. But laissez les bons temps rouler.

[elvishiekios]

Without airconditioning heat stroke can be lethal!

[wegottafishdude]

I knew you were a smart cookie even when you were working at the gas station you also had a glow to you under the windmill on the farm❤️

[gingerhunley]

they left all patients in nursing homes the staff abandon them

[patrickcash]

I am a former hospice director who understands end of life and euthanasia. What Pou did was simply murder.

[helenmary]

where is dr. kovokaron? why must dying be prolonged?

[flahertyrick]

Interesting check out st rita's nursing home

[applecreeksolarllc]

They should have generators on the roof not ground level with natural gas generators and or a huge building beside the hospital with huge amounts of diesel fuel to run generators that would power the hospitals for weeks they would not have to have to be full of diesel all the time just fill them when a storm is near and if you don’t need it then you hall it back in you could build the building on stilts and have disconnects for the lower floors and run what you need problem solved then the medical or state or gov should be forced want to or not evacuate who they need to fly out