Here is today's post from Kate Skeffington:

 

Sheri Fink has written about the horror of what happened at Memorial hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the choices made by doctors and nurses in the middle of a crisis for which no one had prepared. With back up generators inundated, the powerless hospital had no air conditioning, no way to power the multitude of machines that make up critical care in the 20th century and no evacuation plan from the corporate owners. The  city was bordering on anarchy and both the state and federal governments gave conflicting information. After 4 days some of the staff believed that the most critically ill would not survive and might be abandoned so they decided to euthanize these patients using morphine and  a sedative. Fink, a medical doctor herself, has done exhaustive research and written a remarkable book that examines not just the circumstances and mind-set that went into making these decisions but she follows the societal back-lash - doctors and nurses were charged with murder - and then brings it up to date with examinations of how we dealt with similar situations during Super-storm Sandy.

This is a compelling and sobering book that asks more questions than it answers - and this is not a bad thing.