On August 30th in 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans leaving massive destruction in its path.

The Memorial Hospital was over whelmed by the thousands of people seeking help and medical treatment.

A building which was part of the hospital called ‘LifeCare’ held 1,800 to 2,000 people, including about 238 patients and 600 staff, as well as family members, companions, local people and even pets who sought shelter in the hospital.

As the power failed in the hospital, the staff were faced with the reality that they had to decide who to save. 

In a shocking new book, Five Days at Memorial, writer, neuroscientist and physician Sheri Fink looks at the choices doctors made under the most unimaginable pressure.

It chronicles how the ‘sickest-last’ evacuation system was put in place during the crisis and how some doctors hastened their patients' deaths.

Fink has worked in disaster zones and won a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a 13,000-word article titled “The Deadly Choices at Memorial.”

This article was where the book grew from and was co-published in the New York Times Magazine and on the investigative news site ProPublica.

Sheri Fink spoke to Sean about the practical and ethical problems surrounding a health-care crisis during a disaster scenario.