The eight-episode series chronicles the thousands of lives impacted inside one hospital in the five days following the destructive hurricane in 2005. As the flooding surged and heat increased, a power failure at the hospital led caregivers to make life-altering decisions.
“We need help, we’re running out of food and water,” says a voiceover in the teaser, “we can’t take it much longer.”
“There is nothing else to do for them, except to make them comfortable,” says Farmiga’s Dr. Pou.
Later, she says, “Every single one of us did everything we could and everybody in that hospital was treated with dignity.”
Dr. Anna Pou.Alex Brandon/AP Photo
In the final scene of the teaser, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, Jr. (Philip Craig) and Assistant Attorney General Arthur “Butch” Schafer (Michael Gaston) discuss the deadly outcome of 45 bodies at the memorial hospital.
“Does that make any sense to you?” asks the A.G.
Schafer responds, “Given the conditions, maybe 45 patients just succumbed.”
Counters Foti, “Maybe they didn’t.”
New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina.Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty
The events dramatized inFive Days at Memorialfollow the real-life investigation into the actions of the doctors and caregivers at the hospital.
Her report also notes, “Investigators pored over the evidence, and in July 2006, nearly a year after Katrina, Louisiana Department of Justice agents arrested the doctor and the nurses in connection with the deaths of four patients.”
Pou eventually defended herself on national television, saying her role was to “help” patients “through their pain.” After a New Orleans grand jury declined to indict her on second-degree murder charges, the case faded from view, per theTimes.
New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina.Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty
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source: people.com
