Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

1. evacuation (noun):

in medicine, removal of patients and staff from an endangered area

“In preparation for evacuation, these men and women had been lifted by their hospital sheets, carried down flights of stairs from their rooms, and placed in a corner near an ATM and a planter with wilting greenery.” (Prologue, Page 3)

2. palliative (adjective):

dedicated to the simple relief of pain in patients with terminal illnesses

“This would be no ordinary comfort, not the palliative care he had learned about in a weeklong course that certified him to teach how to relieve symptoms in patients who prioritized this goal of treatment above all others.” (Prologue, page 9)

3. hurricane (noun):

a severe oceanic storm in or Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans caused by low atmospheric pressure and high water temperatures, with sustained winds of 74 miles per hour and above; known as a typhoon in the Western Pacific Ocean

 “For certain New Orleanians, Memorial Medical Center was the place you went to ride out each hurricane that the loop current of the Gulf of Mexico launched like a pinball at the city.” (Chapter 1, page 11)

4. storm surge (noun):

a rise in sea level, and consequent risk of flooding, along a coastal area affected by a severe oceanic storm such as a hurricane

“‘The storm surge most likely will topple our levee system,’ Nagin warned.” (Chapter 3, page 29)

5. intensive care (noun):

specialized medical treatment for the critically ill, especially in hospital intensive care units

“With the appearance of crash carts and the expansion of intensive care medicine in the 1960s and ’70s, hospitals had become adept at keeping sick people alive longer.” (Chapter 3, page 47)

6. Category Five (adjective):

in meteorology, used to describe most severe type of storm, especially with respect to hurricanes

“Katrina had weakened before arrival, buffeting the city with only Category One or Two winds, not the Category Five tempests envisioned by the doom-prophesying weathermen.” (Chapter 3, page 59)

7. canal (noun):

a channel built to move water from one area to another, especially for irrigation or drainage; in New Orleans, part of a system of flood prevention

“An Acadian ambulance worker on-site had confirmed with his dispatchers that one of the canals in New Orleans had been breached.” (Chapter 4, page 63)

8. levee (noun):

an embankment, usually earthen, built up alongside rivers or other watercourses or at the edges of floodplains to control flooding

“Break in the 17th street canal levee—200-feet-wide flooding New Orleans” (Chapter 4, page 76)

9. Do Not Resuscitate order (noun):

also abbreviated as DNR, a legal order signed by patients that forbids medical staff from reviving them if they are dying

“They had decided that all patients with Do Not Resuscitate orders would be prioritized last for evacuation.” (Chapter 4, page 90)

10. helipad (noun):

a landing and takeoff area for helicopters, often on a rooftop

“The pilots flew to Memorial as instructed and executed a challenging maneuver at night, using a slight tailwind to position the helicopter properly on the helipad.” (Chapter 5, page 120)

11. triage (noun):

the sorting of disaster victims into groups, i.e., those who will survive without aid, those who need medical attention to survive, and those who will die regardless of aid

“Triage came to be used in accidents and disasters when the number of those injured exceeded available resources.” (Chapter 5, page 136)

12. syringe (noun):

in medicine, a device consisting of tube, plunger, and needle for extracting or injecting liquids from or into patients

 “On the same prescription form, Cook ordered eight syringes of the powerful anesthetic drug Pentothal, a half gram each.” (Chapter 6, page 155)

13. morphine (noun):

a narcotic pain reliever derived from opium, used in medicine, especially in palliative care

“Morphine, a strong narcotic, was frequently used to control severe pain or discomfort. But the drug could also slow breathing, and suddenly introducing much higher doses could lead to death.” (Chapter 6, page 156)

14. double effect (noun):

in medicine, a procedure that relieves pain in a patient but increases the chance of deat

“Doctors, nurses, and clinical researchers who specialized in treating patients near the end of their lives would say that this ‘double effect’ posed little danger when the drug was administered properly.” (Chapter 6, page 156)

15. marooned (participle):

abandoned in isolation and lacking resources

“Meanwhile, other Tenet executives attempted to convince government officials to prioritize the evacuation of Memorial and the company’s other marooned hospitals.” (Chapter 6, page 168)

16. Versed (proper noun):

a sedative used in anesthesia for relief of agitation and to induce sleep; side effects include addiction, trouble breathing, and low blood pressure

“There were vials of morphine and the sedative midazolam, known by its brand name, Versed, on the table.” (Chapter 7, page 213)

17. comatose (adjective):

in medicine, unconscious, as in a coma

“Ewale had been comatose and unresponsive during those hours, but Karen Wynn believed that even when patients weren’t conscious, they could still feel things.” (Chapter 7, page 216)

18. respiratory distress (noun):

trouble breathing, especially in serious medical conditions

“Culotta saw Lagasse was in respiratory distress and believed she was actively dying.” (Chapter 7, page 222)

19. nursing home (noun):

institution for the care of elderly or chronically ill patients who do not require hospitalization

 “At St. Rita’s, a single-story nursing home near failed levees in St. Bernard Parish, more than thirty residents had apparently drowned.” (Chapter 8, page 231)

20. autopsies (plural noun):

inspection of a body to determine cause of death

“At the attorney general’s request, overburdened coroner Minyard grudgingly agreed to ask a federal disaster mortuary team to perform autopsies and take tissue samples from all the hospital and nursing-home patients who had died in Orleans Parish after Katrina—about one hundred in total, it first appeared.” (Chapter 8, page 258)

21. journalism (noun):

the process of investigating and reporting the news; in narrative book form, this often includes exposés of malfeasance and crimes

“Rider knew that the nurse had, shortly after the storm, openly told a journalism student that people at the hospital were ‘euthanizing’ and ‘putting people to sleep.’” (Chapter 8, page 278)