Summary Of Five Days At Memorial By Sheri Fink

Principle theme Five days at Memorial by Sheri Fink tells the story of the days after Hurricane Katrina at one hospital in New Orleans. Memorial hospital owned by Texas based Tenet corporation had 312 short term acute care (STAC) beds, and leased the seventh floor to Lifecare for a long term acute care (LTAC) hospital. Lifecare’s LTAC at Memorial cared for medically fragile patients with long term complex medical needs. The hospital and health care providers received intense scrutiny after the hurricane due to the higher numbers of dead patients in comparison to comparable New Orleans hospitals, out of the 34 patients which died at the facility, 24 were Lifecare patients. Ethics of health care in a disaster are a major theme of the book.

Staff listened to news reports on a transistor radio described the looting of businesses, gang violence and military martial law. People waiting out the storm were fearful. On-site administrators surveyed remaining assets and discovered an abandoned helipad on the garage roof. Hospital staff feared the helipad would not hold the weight of national guard helicopters if air evacuation was needed. When air evacuation became necessary, patients had to be carried down a flight of stairs in the hospital and back stairs on the parking structure to reach the helipad.

Fink (2013) spends a great deal of time describing the atmosphere which included the staff members frightened pets housed in a makeshift animal shelter in the medical records department. The National Guard refused to rescue the animals; therefore, staff with pets had to choose to abandon them and be evacuated or stay behind in the hospital. Fink (2013) foreshadowed the euthanasia of patients by describing the administration of lethal medications to staff member’s pets. Fink (2013) discussed the deliberations between health care providers regarding patient prognosis and compassionate care in the face of

Non-maleficence is the principle of not harming another person, in a disaster, delay in treatment can do harm, accordingly prompt communication is vital in addressing care needs of a community. Beneficence refers to doing good, and justice refers to equity of distribution of health care resources. In an emergency, Beneficence and Justice can be achieved by efficient and effective triage to allocate limited resources to the neediest patients (Grimaldi, 2007). Grimaldi (2007) states “patients who can be saved and whose lives are in immediate danger should be treated first”