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

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Sheri Fink tells the harrowing tale of a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina in Five Days at Memorial (Crown, $27). Drawing on meticulous research and six years of reporting, Fink explores the ethical and moral dilemmas caregivers faced during the hurricane, and she gets to the bottom of the criminal charges brought against the hospital’s staff for the deaths and euthanization of forty-five patients. From scenes of babies being airlifted to safety to health care professionals administering fatal injections, Fink’s account is a truly disturbing cautionary tale, one that opens a much-needed conversation about America’s large-scale disaster preparedness and how we can move forward.