Sheri Fink (1)

Five Days In Memorial was one of the most troubling and disturbing books I've ever read. It is broken into two parts. The first half tells of the deplorable conditions the doctors and nurses had to work under after their hospital was crippled by Hurricane Katrina. In 21st century America it simply should not have taken 5 whole days to evacuate a hospital filled with critically ill patients. This inexcusable delay led to the doctors doing what they felt was best for the patients. In some cases this meant administrating overdoses of morphine to end the suffering and gently lead the patients into their inevitable passing So what to the politicians who completely let down the doctors do after the hurricane is over ? The decide to charge the doctors and nurses of Memorial with murder.
The second half of the book covers this process and was more disturbing than the first half. The way the lawyers and politicians vehemently went after the health care professionals who did the best they could in a terrible situation absolutely sickened me. In many cases it really seemed they were doing it merely to further their own careers. Since I strongly recommend reading the book,I wont reveal how things eventually turned out.… (mais)

Imagine that you have some chronic but stable illness ( a verschlepte krank) and you also have some feature or trait that might be irritating to your caregivers; you moan or you are obese and require assistance for this and that. Now suppose that you have become isolated with your caregivers from the outside world, and add some or all of the following ingredients:

1. Raise the ambient temperature 15 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Cut off all electricity and running water.
3. Cut off communication with the outside world except for talk radio
4. Have third hand intermittent contact with various “rescuers” who seem confused and unreliable
5. Give yourself an IV line and make morphine and Versed readily available.
6. Place a short-statured narcissistic female ENT cancer surgeon, who is used to making life and death decisions and to justifying her mistakes, in charge.

How long until someone decides to give you morphine and Versed until you die?
Four days.… (mais)