Blog #1 - "Deadly Choices At Memorial"/"Trial by Fire"

"Deadly Choices at Memorial"


ln the article, “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,” the author Sheri Fink informs the readers the truth of what occurred at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the city of New Orleans in 2005. The article uses many doctors and hospital workers as sources, but also tells the hard work that Fink contributed to figuring how exactly what had taken place. Memorial Medical Center had dealt with power outages and flooding, but the most shocking part of the story dealt with the decisions made by overwork doctors and nurses.

Anna Pou, a surgeon with a strong work ethic but also considered funny and sociable, was one of the doctors that had to make hard decisions very quickly. The team of workers was using a system to rate each patient according to how sick they were, category 1 for healthiest, 2 for in between, and 3 for the sickest. The goal was to get as many patients evacuated from the hospital due to lack of supplies available in the hospital. It was clear that patients labeled with category would not be going anywhere for a while, maybe they would never move.

Pou started to make some of the patients feel more comfortable by infecting with morphine and midazolam. However these drugs did their job which resulted in die and therefore Pou and other workers were considered to have committed a crime of euthanasia by administering the drugs. The part that shocked me the most was when there was a man who had been given multiple doses but he had not died yet, the doctors placed a towel on his face which eventually smothered him to death. The jury on Pou’s case decided not to indict the doctor.

This article is considered to be literary journalism due to the facts that there were such vivid details provided by Fink but also the narrative voice which she used throughout the piece. This article really had me picturing all the patients and hospital in my head, but after I was done I really wanted to find what exactly Pou had looked like. I found very different types of photos of Pou, it was either her doctor identification photo or her mug shot. Both pictures of clearly the same person, but difference between the photos are her attitude. In the professional photo, she appears proud with her broad shoulders and looking directly at the camera. While the mug shot, she appears to be looking towards the ground. 

"Trial by Fire" 

For my second article, I chose to read “Trial by Fire,” by David Grann. The article tells the details story of Todd Willingham, who was convicted for starting the fire that killed his three children and the next twelve years of his life. The morning of the fire, Willingham’s wife Stacy, had left the house early to go Christmas shopping for the children. Willingham awoke to hear his daughter screaming, without thinking he attempted to rescue his children but couldn’t. He ran out from his house, screamed at a neighbor to call 911 and attempted to save his children again. When help had arrived, Willingham was handcuffed so the fireman and police could do their job. All three children were announced dead.

The house was investigated and detected that the fire was started by a human, by pouring liquid accelerant on the floor of the bedrooms and along the hallway to the door. Willingham being the only one who survived soon became the prime suspect. Willingham past was studied and it was discovered that he had a rough history and was being interrogated. The main reason for believing that Willingham was guilty if the floor was on fire right away to the liquid accelerant there would have been no way to prevent the bottom of his feet being burned, which they were not as proven by medical records. Willingham was arrested and charged with murder of multiple victims which meant he was available for the death penalty in Texas.

A fellow prison mate told authorities that one night Willingham confused to placing some sort of lighter fluid on the ground to start the fire. He was given an option to plead guilty and would have a life sentence. However, he refused and when he went to trial he was found guilty and placed on death row.

Years later, divorced, a lady named Elizabeth Gilbert and Willingham started writing letters back and forth and she had even visited him twice. She was curious in the fire and had gone to the court house to look at the records and noticed some inaccuracies. She was curious and started to interview people who were involved with the case including Willingham’s parents, wife, neighbors, relatives and prison mates. The neighbor who called 911 still believed he was guilty, but others had doubts. In a final attempt, Willingham appealed to the governor of Texas and Dr. Gerald Hurst review his case.  He found some things on the originally investigation were true and some were false.

Hurst had worked with a very similar case to this one in the past and he was working towards being able to prove Willingham not guilty. However after all this work, the petition was denied and Willingham would be executed. In December 2004, the case was examined again because questions began to arise and each and every indicator used was proved to be invalid.

The reason I believe this article to be literary journalism is similar to the reason of the hospital story, because there was so much detail provided in way things burn, the way fire works, historical evidence, and the fact that duration of time that had passed throughout the entire story.

New York Times

A story from the New York Times that has the concept of literary journalism applied was on the front page below the fold on Tuesday, August 23rd’s issue. The title of the article was “Weighing Race and Hate in a Mississippi Killing,” the article discussed the killing of a black man named James Craig Anderson that took place in June, but asked hard questions such as “Was the killing of Mr. Anderson premeditated racial violence?” or “ An act indicative of a deep cultural divide?” Also the article started with a lead that had described Anderson in a positive way and later in the article spend multiple paragraphs informing the reader on the good things that Anderson that done throughout his life. Besides focusing on Anderson’s death, the article discussing how this man’s death has caused other people, both black and white, to reflect on their own race. The article also made a connection to the past and movie world mentioning “The Help,” a movie which focuses on black maids and their white employers. I really like the quote at the end of the article by B.J. Quick, a black man with a white girlfriend, “It’s still here, it’s just under the surface more.”

Another article that a bit of literary journalism was from August 24^th issue, titled “After Stillbirth, Courts Try to Put a Price on a Mother’s Anguish,” the beginning of the article started with two tales of women who dealt with stillbirth and incorporated their stories in throughout the rest of the article. The main reason why I believe that this article deals with literary journalism is because I was hooked to the story to continue to find what exactly happened to these women. Literary journalism really brings stories to live when they are live real people involved and emotionally you can feel for them through the article. 

My Ideas

After reading these impressive stories, it’s hard to picture that I could muster anything that would result in such a detailed, “I can’t put this book now, till I finish reading” feeling in my own literary journalism piece. I’m not really sure if I even like my own idea, but I could possibly to a piece on being a family member of a person in the military. Having one parent suddenly gone for an extended period of time can make living life hard. My own family has been affected by topic, but I’m hoping with continued thought I can think of more ideas.