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joyreadsinnc's review against another edition
5.0
Awesome investigative writing and story. I could hardly put it down. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about hospital care during disasters and human behavior during life and death situations.
tablereader234's review against another edition
5.0
A devastating and extremely important book. It's extremely detailed and well-researched and I came away with an appreciation for the complexity of the situation before, during, and after the storm. This is not a hit piece. If you want to read about medical ethics in disaster zones, this is a great place to start.
beachybookstack's review against another edition
4.0
Although some sections of the book feel particularly long-winded, this is a super interesting read after living through COVID and going into nursing. I was somewhat surprised that the defendants weren't all just thrown under the bus, but of course their corporate overlords mostly escaped fault for almost everything that happened. I am definitely going to avoid working for Tenet Healthcare systems at any point, we have a local handful of their hospitals and I've heard that they are resource light but the pay is good. Not a trade I'm interested in.
I kept having to stop and remember that this book was published in 2013 long before COVID hit the United States, but it was almost comical to hear about the ethical discussions about allocating care based on age or ventilator availability with the knowledge of how poorly that went over the last couple years. The moment that the 1918 flu pandemic is mentioned I think I nearly threw my phone across the room. We were prepared for anything in 2013, and we sure weren't prepared in 2020 either. Regardless, the close of the book makes a point about being prepared to go low tech for medical care and I think that this would probably be a good idea for anyone working in healthcare. I should probably learn to manually do a lot of things just in case I ever have to bag a patient or titrate drips by eye rather than by pump.
I kept having to stop and remember that this book was published in 2013 long before COVID hit the United States, but it was almost comical to hear about the ethical discussions about allocating care based on age or ventilator availability with the knowledge of how poorly that went over the last couple years. The moment that the 1918 flu pandemic is mentioned I think I nearly threw my phone across the room. We were prepared for anything in 2013, and we sure weren't prepared in 2020 either. Regardless, the close of the book makes a point about being prepared to go low tech for medical care and I think that this would probably be a good idea for anyone working in healthcare. I should probably learn to manually do a lot of things just in case I ever have to bag a patient or titrate drips by eye rather than by pump.
clockworkblue's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Frustrating, thought-provoking, and extremely well-written.
teagwood's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.25
npar6790's review against another edition
1.0
This book had so much potential. Unfortunately, the author made a very biased presentation of the events. Furthermore, she justified her argument with opinions and here say. Very disappointing.