Producer Scott Rudin, whose Captain Phillips opened this past weekend, has secured the film rights to Sheri Fink’s recent book, Five Days at Memorial, Deadline reports. The in-depth investigation into hospital practices affected by hurricane Katrina was published last month and is officially described as follows:
In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos.
After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths.
“Five Days at Memorial,” the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.
In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters and how we can do better.
Rudin will produce alongside Eli Bush with additional talent expected to be announced shortly.
