Winning Non-Fiction Title (NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD 2014): to Author Sheri Fink

Five days at Memorial : life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital / / / / / published in 2013 by Random House Publishers SYNOPSIS: Sheri Fink provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans, LA hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina-- and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Fink unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.