Deadly Neglect

About the Book

Each new hurricane season brings with it a fl urry of new articles and books chronicling the ravages of Katrina and the continuing angst and sorrow left in the crescent city, This book is essentially the re-telling of the tragic story of nine nursestrapped in hospitals during and after one of the nation’s most destructive storms.

This was fi rst published as a scholarly doctoral dissertation but we spare the reader the expected academic rigor of such a document. We take a look at the area’s history of severe storms and the costly actions taken to mitigate obvious vulnerabilities and (what appear to be) robust measures to prepare for and respond to the known greatest threat to the region.

We follow the approaching hurricane Katrina viewing the same set of information available to decision makers responsible for the safety and security of hospitalized patients in the area. In time of crisis, at a critical point in time, hospital authorities must choose between “protecting in place or evacuating” their vulnerable charges, The fatal decision to “protect in place” set the stage for “Nurses in Hell: The Katrina Experience.”

About the Author