Sheri Fink does take the side of an investigative journalist in her story chronicling the decision made by Anna Pou and other doctors at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans to categorize intensive care patients as those with “terminal and irreversible conditions” who are not worth saving in times of disasters.
By reflecting how “stunned” morgue workers were at the number of dead bodies they received from the hospital and by mentioning her role as a journalist, interviewing Ms. Pou at length though she declined to comment on any patient deaths, Fink proves her credibility as a reporter and writer.
Fink implies that the eventual death of intensive care patients was wrong, but maintains her status as an objective journalist by including that although the Life Care staff members asked on Tuesday for their 52 patients be added to the transport plans, Tenet Healthcare, the hospital’s main healthcare provider, said that Life Care staff members turned down several opportunities to receive evacuation assistance the same day.
What is important to Fink’s storytelling technique is her ability to create Anna Pou as a character in a novel. She does not go into the personal details of Anna, simply that she has a tiny build, is passionate, and likes to wear pearls. But yet despite her calm demeanor, she was able to make such an important decision that cost numerous lives. “The full details of what Pou did, and why, may never be known,” Fink wrote. This statement lends itself to a more insightful portrayal of Ms. Pou as an individual.
Fink organizes her story from the most current news of Ms. Pou trying to save herself from three suits through advocacy of her decision, to the lack of public awareness of her idea on what doctors should due in the sake of “disaster preparedness,” then to leading up to the days handled by tiers of medical workers left with the aftermath of a bad decision, and finally to the inevitable deaths of so many intensive care patients, and the angry relatives they left behind in confusion.
