Five Days At Memorial

Clinical Ethics Discussion in Disaster Preparedness: Five Days at Memorial

Tonya Laczko-Melton
University of Florida

NGR 7882
Dr. Harriet Miller
November 6, 2014

Table of Contents
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Review of Literature......................................................................................................................5 vvvvvvv Discussion......................................................................................................................................
Summary and Recommendation.....................................................................................................
References.......................................................................................................................................

Abstract
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink was a very compelling overview of the tragedy that took place at Memorial Hospital during the five days after Hurricane Katrina ravished New Orleans in September 2005. The book approached the ethical dilemmas faced by those physicians and staff involved in the key roles of the rescue effort at Memorial Medical Center, one of the many medical facilities that were devastated by this category 5 hurricane. The physicians who remained to care for the patients were put in the difficult position of deciding who was most appropriate for rescue, and what to do with those left behind. Staff members, nurses in particular, were put in the position of whether or not to obey seemingly unjustified orders. The catastrophe was worsened by the backlash from the patients’ families, the community, and the nation regarding their decisions, including arrests and wrongful

References: Fink, S. (2013). Five Days at Memorial. New York, NY: Crown. Lugosi, C. (2007). Natural disaster, unnatural deaths: the killings on the life care floors at Tenet’s Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina. Issues in Law and Medicine, 23(1), 71-85. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17703700 Shea, F. (2010). Hurricane Katrina and the legal and bioethical implications of involuntary euthanasia as a component of disaster management in extreme emergency situations. Annals of Health Law, 19(1), 133-139. Retrieved from http://lawecommons.luc.edu/annals/vol19/iss1/27 Pou, A. (2014). Ethical and legal challenges in disaster medicine :Are you ready? South Med J. 2013;106(1):27-30. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233976412_Ethical_and_legal_challenges_in_disaster_medicine_are_you_ready Dworkin, Gerald, "Paternalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/paternalism/>.