Five Days After the Catastrophe

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, causing severe flooding and literally turning the city into ruins. The Memorial Medical Center found itself locked in, without electricity and the ability to receive help from anywhere. Thousands of people—from critically... ill patients to relatives of medical staff—were cut off from the outside world for five days. Doctors had to make difficult decisions: whom to save first, who could be evacuated, and who might not survive until then. A few months later, when this horror was behind, some medical professionals were arrested for administering lethal doses of drugs to hopeless patients... What really happened in the Memorial Medical Center? Mass murder? Or did the doctors, sacrificing their careers, take this step to ease the last hours of the dying? Sheri Fink will provide answers to these questions, demonstrating how human behavior changes in critical situations.