In her article about Anna Pou’s decisions at Memorial Hospital, Sheri Fink takes the side of Ms. Pou in the sense that she is portrayed as a woman that ultimately made unfortunate decisions due to her extreme circumstances. She is detailed in the sense that she was trying to do her job to the best of her ability, and adamantly stands by her decisions. The introduction for the feature establishes the perspective on Ms. Pou to demonstrate her as one of many doctors faced with difficult decisions, and thus attempts to humanize her actions when they seem most inhumane.
The paragraph about Pou’s decisions and their impact on the medical world is important due to the fact that it establishes the event as a pivotal moment, with a lasting impact on the way others may prepare for disasters in the future. The paragraph fits into the rest of the story as a reminder to make a mental note of the weight of her actions, and how they are continuously brought up throughout the progression of the feature. This brings in a perspective of the consequences and events that followed the actions made in the midst of Hurricane Katrina.
Fink organizes her story with an introduction explaining who Ms. Pou is and the background of the decisions she had to make, and then goes into a deeply detailed retelling of the events that unfolded within the hospital, from the perspective of the people that worked there. The feature wraps up with a jump forward to Pou’s trial, bringing the story to a close with her quote on the decisions made during a natural disaster.
