NEW ORLEANS — It was a news story that played out right here in our city for years in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — the tragedies of what went on in Memorial Hospital behind the scenes when the city was underwater.
Now an eight-episode series, based on those real-life events, begins streaming Friday.
In the days after Katrina, the situation was desperate. What happened at Memorial Hospital became a national story, wrapped up in a legal case. The state attorney general accused a doctor of purposefully giving patients an overdose of drugs, leading to their death.
The doctor maintained she was trying to manage pain and care for patients in a hopeless and squalid situation.
Apple-TV's eight-episodes of "Five Days at Memorial," advertised as based on actual events from Hurricane Katrina, is adapted from the New York Times bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheri Fink. She also is a medical doctor, Ph.D. neuroscientist, and former disaster relief worker.
We reached her by phone and requested an interview. She was looking into doing one via Zoom, Wi-Fi connections permitting, but later had an Apple TV publicist contact us to answer questions.
We also spoke with doctors who were there, in real life. They have not seen the series, but have concerns based on what was written about them in the book, and subsequent article in the New York Times. They feel what the trained medical staff went through in triage is not accurate and portrays a “Hollywood narrative.” They say bodies were already in the morgue, and the others who died, were ones in a life-care ward for critically ill and dying patients.
Attorney Rick Simmons also gave us a statement. He is the attorney for Dr. Anna Pou who was at the hospital, and wants the miniseries to note that the Orleans grand jury returned a no true bill for any charges against her involving patient deaths.
He says Dr. Pou is not commenting on the show, will not watch, and is focusing on her patients. She is not tied to, or getting monetary compensation, for the drama. Simmons says they asked for an advance copy, but did not get one, and wants a visible disclaimer that Dr. Pou did not participate in it.
Dr. Fink says in the production notes, that she hopes knowing what happened might help with future planning, and avert a similar crisis in the future. She notes that true medical professionals disagreed with one another on the actions that needed to be taken. And she hopes that living through the pandemic gives us a different perspective of what happened inside and the need for crisis planning.
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