Susan Mulderick and Karen Wynn are tasked with contacting the families of patients who passed away at the hospital during Hurricane Katrina in this EXCLUSIVE peek of the episode of Five Days At Memorial airing on September
Susan calls the daughter of a patient to confirm that her mother “died at the hospital between the hurricane and the evacuation of patients from the facility.” Meanwhile, Karen apologizes to another patient’s loved one. “I’m so sorry this took two weeks.”
As Susan continues to talk to the patient’s daughter, she reads from a script provided to her. She tells the loved one that her mother was placed in the chapel. “Your loved one was treated with dignity,” she says.
The daughter starts to inquire as to why her mother was not taken to safety before the storm. According to Susan, who is reading from her notes, evacuations were made based on the “danger to the patient.” There are even more inquiries, and Susan is at a loss for words.
Susan listens to the daughter cry on the phone as the weight of the news settles in. “I am very sorry,” Susan says.
When Hurricane Katrina struck, Susan and Karen were at Memorial Medical Center. With little to no electricity, clean water, or functioning air conditioning for days, the physicians, nurses, and patients struggled to survive in appalling circumstances. After 45 corpses were discovered, the hospital came under heavy scrutiny, and an investigation into certain patient deaths was launched.
Vera Farmiga, who plays Dr. Anna Pou, told HollywoodLife that she hopes viewers have “compassion for everyone” who had to experience this tragedy. “Viewers will feel what it was like to be [there] in multiple perspectives in these characters’ shoes. They will feel it viscerally. That’s the great power of the series,” she said. “But I hope they do have compassion for everyone who went through it: the doctors, the nurses, the staff at Memorial, the patients, the families that were there, the people that were seeking shelter. I do want them to have that compassion.” New episodes of Five Days At Memorial premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.
