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

1. Shortly after it opens in 1926, New Orleans’s Baptist Medical Center suffers from what calamity?

A) structural collapse

B) vermin

C) flooding

D) fire

2. As Hurricane Katrina approaches New Orleans in 2005, LifeCare hospital decides to move its elderly patients where?

A) to Memorial hospital

B) upstairs to its most secure wing

C) upstate out of the hurricane’s path

D) to nursing facilities above Lake Pontchartrain

3. Why does New Orleans Mayor Nagin order the city evacuated ahead of Hurricane Katrina?

A) it is the first hurricane to strike the area in over 100 years

B) the US government has mandated an evacuation

C) mass rioting is expected following the storm

D) flooding will make the city uninhabitable for weeks

4. Fill in the blank: Katrina makes landfall as a _______________ hurricane.

5. For which of these reasons is Memorial hospital’s generator vulnerable to the storm?

A) It’s an older type that tends to fail after 24 hours.

B) It switches off when electric power is lost.

C) It’s on the ground floor, which might be flooded.

D) It sits outside where wind-driven objects can damage it.

6. When the air-conditioning shuts off, nurses cool patients how?

A) with sips of water

B) with box fans

C) with open windows

D) with ice baths

7. What prompts hospital officials to evacuate Memorial?

A) There’s no more potable water.

B) If they stay, everyone will drown.

C) The facility no longer meets state standards.

D) The backup generators will fail.

8. Fill in the blank: Floodwaters at the hospital come from a broken ______________.

9. Why is Memorial’s emergency plan inadequate?

A) Corporate owners wanted to save money.

B) City bureaucrats delayed necessary approvals.

C) No storm ever caused as much damage as Katrina.

D) Nearby hospitals were expected to support each other.

10. “Do Not Resuscitate” patients are prioritized last for evacuation because:

A) they have the least to lose

B) they’re too hard to move

C) the mayor’s office ordered it

D) it’s standard procedure in emergencies

11. While awaiting rescue, several elderly patients take what action?

A) form a committee to protest their mistreatment

B) help move more seriously ill patients

C) die from dehydration and heat stroke

D) commandeer a boat and escape from the hospital

12. What is the only effective rescue transport initially, alongside helicopters? (short answer)

13. Lacking enough resources, nurses prioritize patients using what method?

A) a lottery

B) triage

C) last names

D) the patient’s age

14. Dr. Ewing Cook orders comatose patient Jannie Burgess’s morphine drip increased:

A) “until she revives”

B) “until she goes”

C) “until she feels better”

D) “until the helicopter arrives”

15. Rescue efforts are stymied because the various agencies involved are all hampered by what circumstance?

A) they are disorganized

B) they are distracted by in-fighting

C) they have been evacuated

D) they are underfunded

16. Overwhelmed hospital staff consider the drastic step of killing some patients, an action of questionable legality that is called what? (short answer)

17. Some staffers are forced to take which of the following drastic measures?

A) abandon their patients and depart

B) withhold pain medicine from patients

C) kill their own patients

D) swim with patients to safety

18. Days after the hospital is evacuated, disaster teams return to find that:

A) the building is empty of people

B) some staffers are still there protecting patients

C) dozens of bodies lie scattered throughout the building

D) armed squatters have taken over and refuse to leave

19. Witnesses describe Dr Pou’s intentions as what?

A) palliative

B) confused

C) measured

D) lethal

20. What was the possible escape route for seventh floor patients that had been overlooked by hospital staff? (short answer)

21. When tested, tissue samples from patients who suffered suspicious deaths show signs of:

A) morphine and severe dehydration

B) morphine and severe hypoglycemia

C) morphine and Demerol

D) morphine and Versed

22. Dr Bryant King told investigators he was disturbed to learn of which update?

A) 45 bodies when his count had been 21

B) Dr Pou’s suspicious behavior on the seventh floor

C) the disappearance of 6 LifeCare patients from the seventh floor

D) the sudden disappearance of sedatives on Day 4

23. Memorial owner Tenet decided to take which action as a result of the chaos?

A) evacuate only hospital executives by helicopter

B) evacuate only patients by helicopter

C) lay off all hospital staff

D) pay bonuses to all hospital staff

24. The chief suspect in the suspicious deaths of Memorial patients, Dr Anna Pou, is charged with what? (short answer)

25. Which of the following resulted in some staffers being rescued early at Tenet’s Lindy Boggs Medical Center?

A) They were seriously injured during the storm.

B) They were needed to oversee critical patients.

C) They witnessed patients being euthanized.

D) They disguised themselves as patients.

26. Memorial nurses Landry and Budo testify to which of the following?

A) witnessing Dr. Pou injecting patients with a lethal sedative

B) witnessing some LifeCare nurses sleeping on the job

C) injecting patients with morphine only to calm them

D) injecting patients with midazolam to euthanize them

27. The grand jury returns a decision to:

A) indict Dr. Pou for negligent homicide

B) bring no charges against Dr. Pou

C) charge Tenet Healthcare with malfeasance

D) indict nurses Landry and Budo for manslaughter

28. When Hurricane Sandy strikes New York in 2012, Bellevue Hospital improves on Memorial’s experience by protecting its generators and giving all ICU patients access to what? (short answer)

29. How did the National Academy of Medicine react to the events at Memorial in New Orleans?

A) by taking a stand against euthanasia

B) by approving of euthanasia in extreme emergencies

C) by defending Dr. Pou’s actions during Katrina

D) by condemning Memorial Hospital’s crisis response