Pulitzer Prize-winner Sheri Fink's landmark work of narrative nonfiction re-creates the world of a New Orleans hospital ravaged by post-Katrina floodwaters and examines the central question of what doctors and other caregivers owe their patients in the best, and worst, of circumstances. Physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of the doctors and nurses who struggled to preserve life amidst chaos. After Katrina destroyed the generators that make twenty-first century medicine possible, to be a patient at Memorial meant you were wholly at the mercy of caregivers forced to make a cascade of decisions about whose lives could be preserved and who would most likely die in the face of serious illness and limited medical care. The result was an almost unthinkable tragedy: several health professionals deliberately injected severely ill patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. In an engrossing narrative that exposes the human drama that fuels medicine and the unchartered territory of end-of-life care, Fink brings the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about just how ill-prepared we are as Americans for the impact of large-scale disasters on the most vulnerable among us.
Sheri Fink Book order (chronological)
Dr. Sheri Fink is an investigative journalist whose work delves into the complex ethical dilemmas faced during crises. She chronicles the difficult decisions made by individuals in extreme circumstances, particularly within healthcare systems. Her reporting often explores the tension between duty and limited resources, examining human responses to disaster and offering profound insight into the moral complications of survival. Fink draws on her extensive experience as a relief worker to craft compelling and detailed narratives that prompt deep reflection.
Five Days at Memorial
- 576 pages
- 21 hours of reading
In the tradition of the best writing on human behaviour and moral choices in the face of disaster, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos.
Skutečný příběh o chirurgii a boji o život. V dubnu 1992 hrstka mladých lékařů, z nichž ani jeden nebyl chirurgem, zůstala uvězněna spolu s 50 000 muži, ženami a dětmi v obklíčené enklávě kolem města Srebrenica, na území Bosny a Hercegoviny. Ve Srebrenici, městě, jehož tragický osud je stále aktuální, tito lékaři čelili nejintenzivnějšímu porofesnímu, etickému a osobnímu vypětí ve svých životech. Přeložil Petr Tůma.