Day Three – As the third episode of Five Days at Memorial begins, Dr. Bryant King (Cornelius Smith Jr.) says everyone thought they got lucky and everything would be fine the day after Katrina hit. It was fine until they learned that the levees had broken. All this water started pouring into the city and there was no way to stop it. When asked if he knew how bad things would get at Memorial, Bryant says nobody knew. Then, he is asked what stands out to him the most. After thinking about it, Bryant says what stands out the most is that it was just five days. It only took five days for everything to fall apart. He is asked about Dr. Anna Pou’s behavior over those five days. Bryant says the same as everyone because the circumstances reveal who you really are. After the intro, Susan Mulderick (Cherry Jones) has a window broken so some air can flow into the hospital.

She tells everyone about the break in the 17th Street Canal levee and the city pumps aren’t working. Susan warns them that water will keep coming and the hospital may be flooded up to the second floor. She is adamant that they have to evacuate and start now. Ewing (W. Earl Brown) asks where they go since there is looting going on outside. Susan insists they have to leave before they lose the rest of the power to the building. Eric (Joel Keller) admits the electrical switches will be flooded when the water gets to four feet before they shut down. He suspects they have about four hours in the worst case. Anna (Vera Farmiga) asks how they get the patient out. Susan says they’ve talked to the National Guard about getting some vehicles. They’ve also talked to their contractors about getting some ambulances. Sandra has been emailing Tenet to see if they can contract some private helicopters. Karen (Adepero Oduye) asks if helicopters can land here since the landing pad hasn’t been used for a while.

That was when the Pope was here in 1987. Eric says the garage elevators aren’t wired into the backup electricity system. Since the elevators aren’t working, it’ll be difficult to get the patients to the helipad. Two workers with engineering backgrounds are instructed to go with Eric to look over the pad. Susan tells them to decide whether it is stable or not. She is convinced they can find a way to get the patients to the pad before warning them not to use or drink the city water because it is fouled. Anna tries to call Vince again, but ends up leaving a message. She talks to her team while Diane (Julie Ann Emery) learns that Memorial is going to evacuate the hospital. Diane tells Angela (Raven Dauda) to stay with her mother. Angela sits next to Wilda (Diane Johnstone) and sings to her. Jill (Joy Tanner) calls Mark (JD Evermore) to tell him about the water coming in and filling the parking lot, but he tells her to stay there with mom. Mark looks at a map with Sandra (Monica Wyche) to try to find a base of operations or marshaling point.

If they get some volunteer credentials, they can get into the city and make their way to the hospital. Sandra worries that they’ll already have his mom out, but Mark is concerned that they won’t. He thinks it is better to get there than staying here and praying for a call that’s never going to come. After Mark makes it clear that he won’t leave his mom, Sandra suggests they find a fire station. Sandra insists they’ll get her. As they drive around, Diane asks Susan about evacuating the hospital. Despite being a private hospital, Diane admits they can’t contact anyone and don’t even have any of their doctors up there. She can barely get in touch with the corporate offices. Susan asks her to see if they can get in touch with the Coast Guard or any private air charters. She’ll let her know if the helipad is operational. Susan asks for a list of her critical patients. Susan talks to Sandra Cordray (Jessica Greco) about getting in touch with the Coast Guard and Tenet.

Susan wants her to email Tenet again and tell them that we’re running out of time. Sandra yells that she is trying. Susan knows she is. She tells her to just let her know when she hears something. In Dallas, Michael Arvin (Joe Carroll) gets another email from Memorial in New Orleans saying they need to evacuate patients. He wonders what they should do since the emails are going wide and nobody is responding to them. A coworker wants him to sign off on something, but he tells her they’ll do it later. He confronts Steve about the emails they’re getting from Memorial. Steven admits he wouldn’t know about any emergency plans.

Steve asks if there is someone in Louisiana since they’re in business development, but Michael thinks they really need help. Steve mentions something about the VP who used to be in the National Guard named Portis. Michael goes back to his desk where he calls Alan Portis’s office. He introduces himself as the Director of Business Development for Tenet Gulf Coast. When he learns Alan is on vacation, Michael asks if they can reach him since the hospital is being flooded and needs assistance. The woman on the other end asks him to hold. Once Alan talks to Michael, he isn’t very helpful and just tells him to call the National Guard. After the call, Michael sends a message to Sandra Cordray telling her that the National Guard is coordinating and good luck. Sandra responds by asking if they’re on their own and they cannot help. Michael says he is there and will help them. He begins trying to get in touch with the Louisiana National Guard or the Coast Guard.

At the hospital, workers struggle to prevent water from entering the basement. Eric, Dr. Barbour (Colin Doyle), and Dr. Levinson (Michael Gordin Shore) approach the landing pad to find out what kind of condition it is in. They quickly realize that it will not be easy to get 200 patients up here. It takes then a while to climb the rusty stairs. They begin checking the structure while helicopters fly overhead. Dr. Levinson notices that corrosion is everywhere including all over the metal. He says they better make sure this thing can support the weight before landing any helicopters up here. Eric contacts Freddy to let him know he is coming down to get some kind of saw or steel cutter. When Dr. Barbour notices a helicopter circling them, he tries to wave them off and get them to leave. Luckily, the helicopter lands without a problem. A trooper gets out and confirms with Barbour that they need help.

He uses his radio to request an evacuation before saying he can take one person. He tells Barbour to hurry so the doctor begins running back into the hospital to tell Susan. Meanwhile, Susan suggests the sickest patients and the ones most dependent on life support or medical aid should be evacuated first. That would include the ones in ICU and the neonates because they won’t survive when the power goes out. After that, they’ll move the most stable patients before evacuating the civilians and families. The staff will go before the doctors. Susan reveals the National Guard has promised to remove 35 medical and surgical patients by truck. When Barbour arrives and explains everything, Susan recommends taking one of the neonates out immediately. He runs over there while the staff continues trying to keep the water out. Susan tells Sandra to let Tenet know they can accept helicopters before telling Karen to get her patients ready to move.

Karen tells her team while Barbour tells the nurses to bring the sickest baby. They agree to take baby Edmonds. They begin working to take the baby to the helipad. Michael tells Steve he just heard that Memorial can take helicopters and he has a hospital in Baton Rouge ready to take patients. He is trying to contact private helicopter companies and a couple of hospitals in Atlanta have offered evacuation support. Steve tells him that the company is saying it needs to be Coast Guard or National Guard because this isn’t airlifting from a car accident. Michael gets back on the phone to say Memorial can take helicopters, but they’re going to try to use the Coast Guard. Barbour and the nurses continue pushing baby Edmonds toward the helipad. They have to stop briefly to give the baby oxygen before continuing up the steps.

The trooper complains that it took too long and they must figure something out with the elevator not working. A nurse goes with the baby to take care of it during the trip. Rene suggests they can get the neonates out by helicopter and 35 patients by National Guard transport. That will leave them with 150 patients as well as doctors, staff, and civilians. He thinks the DNRs should go last since they’ve already signed a Do Not Resuscitate order. Richard argues that a DNR doesn’t mean you shouldn’t save a period. It just means you don’t revive them if they code. They only have four patients who have DNRs in the ICU and it’d be a last resort contingency. Rene thinks they should get four healthy patients out before four terminally ill patients, but Richard wants to discuss it with Susan first. Mark and Sandra LeBlanc watch from their truck as busloads of people are evacuated from the city.

Bryant enters one of the patient’s rooms before yelling for Jane to find out why the heart monitor has been disconnected. Jane tells him that they were told nonessential care was being suspended because they’re evacuating patients. Bryant doesn’t care what Dr. Cook said because the patient belongs to him. He instructs her to reattach the patient’s monitor and don’t check with anyone. Ewing enters and they begin arguing about the heart monitor. He reminds Bryant that he is over this floor and he won’t be dictated to by some junior physician. Mark and Sandra make it to the fire department to see if they can volunteer. Sandra tells the man in charge that she is a paramedic and coordinates the EMT program at Nunez Community College in Chalmette. The man in charge yells for Jimmy to bring him some paperwork. He tells them that they won’t move out until someone figures out what to do with them.

The National Guard trucks arrive at Memorial. Anna learns that they’re taking the patients to Texas. The truck takes 20 patients even though they were supposed to take 35. The next truck will come as soon as it can. Anna decides to stay and let another worker go instead. Some patients are taken to the helipad only to find that there are no helicopters. As the water continues rising, Eric and the others try to keep it from coming into the basement. He warns them to back away from the door because the water is about to burst through. Eric notifies Susan that they can’t hold back the water and it is going to floor the panels. She is also told that there are no helicopters. Sandra tells her they said the helicopters would be there. She sends an email to Michael letting him know they need helicopters. He hears the mayor complaining about the response on the television. The water level hits 4 feet as Eric and the workers try to keep the water away from the panels.

They decide to get out of there because it is going to be too dangerous. The power goes out moments later. The situation is getting worse because more water is pouring into the city. A news report mentions the violence, looting, and snipers. Those in New Orleans have been talking about evacuating two hospitals in the area, but those plans have been put on hold. Anna and the others check on their patients using flashlights before they hear shooting outside. Anna checks on Susan who is letting her mother get a little rest. Susan wants Anna to tell everyone in her unit that no more National Guard trucks are coming. When Anna asks about their people, Susan claims corporate is doing everything they can. On the news, a woman tells the reporter that the ventilators are being run on batteries, but they don’t have any batteries.

The man in charge at Mark’s location gets tired of waiting around and asks for the location of the closest SARBOO. They leave in the emergency vehicles. Emmett claims there is nothing more precious than life. Diane knows although she doesn’t know whether she is having a boy or girl. There are no good surprises left in life, but God has left her with one. He asks her not to get sad because it makes him sad and they both have plenty to live for. A nurse interrupts to tell Diane that a patient is coding. Once she finds out what is happening, she sends a nurse to Memorial for assistance. Anna is notified of the Code Blue on seven. Horace joins them as they try to resuscitate the patient.

Horace calls an official time of death at 10:15. Bryant says that is how it all began with them in the dark, cut off, and without power. He doesn’t think they can understand what it was like. Even for doctors, death isn’t common because they save lives. It doesn’t take much for everything to break down and they couldn’t stop what happened next. The investigator asks if he couldn’t stop people from dying or being killed.

 

Five Days At Memorial Review

Each episode of Five Days at Memorial has been interesting in its own right. As each episode has progressed, the situation at Memorial has gotten much worse and it won’t improve in the next few episodes. The series has been top-notch through three episodes, but it seems a little aimless at this point without any protagonist or antagonist. This will likely change pretty quickly as the situation at the hospital worsens.

At some point, there will likely be a clearer distinction between the good guys and bad guys. Despite some of the accents, the acting has been good from the main performers and secondary performers. All of the special effects look great as well so you can often feel the intensity of each scene. I do worry about the episode count since they’re going to spend five days in the hospital and each episode has been one day so far.

We’ll have to wait and see whether a single day carries over to a second episode or the events outside of the hospital are equally entertaining. The first three episodes have been great though. The episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Five Days at Memorial can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our website at this link.