Code Blue: A Katrina Physician's Memoir

People need to read this book and get a feeling of gratitude in their lives when they read how horrible others have it. This book will open your eyes to the horrific moment s the people of Katrina went through. This book opened my eyes to how people elected into office are not qualified to hold the positions they have. When the government made these poor people at Baptist hospital's conditions worse( fly space, stupid rangers keeping the people fromk evacuation to suit their hours, is a disgrace. So much emphasis on the awful people looting, killing, their day of judgment will come. The survivors are a class of their own and are applauded for their endurance and charity. This book is a bit of history, a lesson in morality, and the need to practice the Golden Rule.

An insightful first hand account of the horrors and heroes at Memorial Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I have a good friend who is an ER nurse and spent those 5 days at the hospital. From my friends accounts this only touches the surface of the horrible conditions and abject government and corporate failures during these 5 days. The book is compelling and completely factual, but does not go far enough in my estimation. I guess reading " Five Days At Memorial" before reading "Code Blue" is the reason I feel this way. 5 Days actually gave too much information, some of which was hard for a lay person to understand and was too long & repetitive. But both were quite interesting. Being a New Orleanean made it almost a must read for me.

Fascinating memoir of Dr Deichman's personal, terrifying experience during hurricane Katrina. While highlighting the specifics of what went wrong in the aftermath of the disaster that was Katrina with respect to his hospital and the patients and staff trapped in its walls, it's also a testimony to human strength under stress. As a healthcare provider myself, I appreciated his candor in describing the difficult and sometimes traumatic decisions that he had to make in his quest to save patient and staff lives. And I am thankful for what I learned about the management of some of the trials he describes. The book is also a timely reminder that no matter how much we trust and depend on outside resources and the government to save us in an emergency, there are emergencies big enough and disruptive enough to require us ultimately to rely on ourselves for survival and rescue.

I truly enjoyed this firsthand account of one man's personal experience in this setting. Katrina wrote a million disaster stories that would strain credibility if they were fiction--but they happened.Strong points: Told through one man's eyes, with no attempt to generalize or speak for anyone else, so that what you read feels like his truth, with no judgment or real room for criticism. The author's unique position also means this story contributes something different to the richly textured fabric of Katrina's aftermath. Well-written enough to keep me reading through to the end.Weak point: It implies the oft-discussed euthanasia of critically ill patients didn't actually happen, without really devoting any argument to that viewpoint. It's hard to believe the author wouldn't have been aware of it if it did, and other people's memoirs have described it, so I'm left to wonder what he'd actually have to say if he'd addressed it more clearly outright.

This was a heartbreaking read. Doctor Deichmann has given us an incredibly well written account of the experiences of the patients and staff trapped in a Hell you can’t imagine unless you were there, yet he took me there with his superior storytelling. He has a career as a writer if he ever decides to give up medicine, would be a loss though, he obviously made care for the patients and families priority one. If not for him and his amazing staff, so many more would have perished.

Such a story of heroism, dedication, professionalism and love for humanity in the unthinkable face of catastrophic disaster. Now that it's 2013, it's great to see even long coming that New Orleans has overcome in a way only this city could. I lived there years before Katrina working as a health professional (also worked at Baptist, Mercy, JoEllen & Meadowcrest). and I left after my 1st evacuation of hurricane George in 1998. I don't think I would have had the courage they did. It never made much news except it hit Mobile, but in NOLO the already full canals from Hurricane Flores rains caused flooding I had never seen. This author not only tells his story well also paints a picture so many don't know of the beautiful people of New Orleans!

I found this book to be raw, effective, and an up close account of what occurred during that horrific week. Thousands of lives were needlessly lost, many of them the elderly and the infirm. Such an epic failure on the part of the government. Thanks to the heroic and heroine efforts of the administrators, staff, and volunteers many lives were saved.

An exceptional and vivid first-hand account of the horrors faced by patients who could not be evacuated prior to the storm and the medical personnel who risked their own lives to stay and care for them. Dr. Deichmann also recounts their rescue, and the attempt by National Guard personnel to PREVENT it. Even if you think you've "heard it all", you really must read this book. Dr. Deichmann brings you as close as one can possibly get, without being there, to a full understanding of how it was to live through hell on earth.