Radiolab Playing God
32 snips
Sep 30, 2022 Sheri Fink, an award-winning New York Times reporter and author of "Five Days at Memorial," dives into the profound ethical dilemmas of triage in crises. She shares harrowing accounts from Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, confronting the heart-wrenching choices medical professionals face when resources dwindle. Fink explores the emotional weight of deciding who lives and dies amidst chaos, illustrating how these decisions resonate in both historical and contemporary contexts. The discussion challenges listeners to ponder morality in life-and-death situations.
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Triage in Kosovo
- Sheri Fink, while volunteering at the Kosovo-Macedonia border, had to triage refugees.
- She prioritized those with acute needs but had to turn away others, some of whom died in a "tent of the damned".
Katrina's Impact on Memorial Hospital
- Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans faced a crisis during Hurricane Katrina when the levees failed and flooded the hospital.
- Initial triage prioritized babies and critical care patients, but the loss of power led to more deaths.
Triage System at Memorial
- After Katrina, doctors at Memorial implemented a triage system, categorizing patients into ones, twos, and threes.
- Threes, the sickest or those with DNR orders, were prioritized last, raising ethical questions.
