Charity: The Heroic and Heartbreaking Story of Charity Hospital in Hurricane Katrina

by Jim Carrier

First went the power. Then came the water, and for five days, the country’s oldest hospital was under siege. The never-before-told story of the heroic doctors, nurses — and patients — who fought to survive Hurricane Katrina at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
The story traces a remarkable five-day transformation of an infirm institution, caught in a sea of death and indifference, into an island of care and tenderness.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medical

101 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2015

About the author

Jim Carrier is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, known for his adventure, nature and science writing. His writing has appeared in the National Geographic, the New York Times, The Denver Post, magazines and anthologies, including the Best American Science and Nature Writing. He has roamed by jeep through the American West and by sailboat across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. His reporting from the West, as the Rocky Mountain Ranger, took him through 500,000 miles, 7,665 sunsets and 87 pairs of Levis. Carrier was founder of IntelliTours, a GPS-guided audio tour company.

Reviews

[Leigh]

I honestly wasn't expecting much from this book. I just finished watching Five Days at Memorial after reading the book a few years back and I bought a few Katrina books this being one. It looked short and quick so I figured I'd read it in a few days and it would be an average book for me. So I dove in and was pleasantly surprised. Starting in the days leading up to the storm we meet a cast of characters, doctors, nurses, patients that we will follow throughout the horrific events about to unfold. We meet Dr. Ben, Dr. Odinet, respiratory therapist Celeste Waddell among others. For patients there's drug dealer Andre Macklin in for gunshot wounds, Jonathan Bourgeois crushed in an accident, preemie Jazmyn weighing just over a pound at birth, Hunter Reeves in need of a lung and heart transplant and Madame X with a heart condition. Charity as the name implies takes people whether insured or not and is the oldest and one of the best hospitals in New Orleans if not the country. As the storm approaches Jonathan becomes the first to pass away his body stored in the basement morgue to be picked up on Monday. Sadly Jonathan like everyone else is trapped when the storm hits and the levees break. While interesting to hear the history of Charity and the background of those involved in the story, the book picks up the pace once the storm hits. But unlike Memorial there's a sense and feeling of hope and teamwork. Patients help care for each other, doctors canoe back and forth between the two sites transferring patients. Charity lost the least amount of people in the storm and you felt the heartbreak of those caring for them when they did die. I only wish they had included pictures so I could get an idea of what the people and places described looked like. The only picture was from the cover which shows a doctor mentioned only once during a transfer of premature babies and the hospital as it looked in 2015. So I had to do some searching and will probably watch the documentary on Charity soon. A very quick fascinating read that shows a more positive side to the health care situation in Katrina than the one at Memorial.

[Nina]

Award-winning journalist Jim Carrier captures the physical and emotional devastation of Hurricane Katrina in his detailed story of Charity Hospital. Charity, the nation’s oldest hospital, was the Statue of Liberty of hospitals; the tired, hungry, and poor knew they could get care there. Carrier takes readers through the history of the hospital, and then, starting with hurricane preparations, through each excruciating day that last week of August 2005, when our nation sat transfixed in front of television sets, and for the most part, did nothing.

The only scandal associated with Charity in the days after Katrina was the fact that they were forgotten. There were “official” reports that all had been evacuated, when in fact, help had not arrived. Carrier portrays true heroes in his account of the actions taken by staff to preserve the lives of patients. His writing is superb. Carrier’s training and experience as a journalist pays off in this tightly written book. His ability to build tension is spot-on; he lets the story tell itself, without any overblown drama.

[Kristin]

This book was really well written, informative and quick to tell an intriguing and suspenseful true story. Healthcare is so astronomical in cost that if the common man is struggling to pay regular costs, anyone who is poor will not even begin to meet the costs. Charity hospital intrigued me because it was the oldest public hospital in the country. I read another review of this book where someone said they did not see who the hero was in the story-they missed the point of this book. The crisis of Katrina brought humanity out of everyone at Charity hospital to connect with one another because they cared about the person next to them and whether that person made it out alive too. At the end of the book one doctor describes that people who had been off dialysis for too long and would have died still survived and he thought it was because each patient and healthcare worker there was caring about someone else in there with them. It says a lot about the power of compassion and showing love for other human beings. There were also descriptions of times when patients from Charity were turned away in favor of patients from other hospitals. I liked that the author delivered the facts of what happened clearly and made a point about what we are missing as a society. Great book.

[Dani Deveaux]

This book helped me very much with my research on how hurricane Katrina affected Charity hospital. I was fascinated and so tremendously sad how terribly New Orleans was struck by Katrina. I work in a hospital and my husband is from Louisiana. Though we didn't live there during Katrina, for some reason, Charity hospital had imprinted itself in my mind and I wrote a romance story in which Charity hospital had an important part. Researching more on Charity and how it was affected by Katrina helped me with my own story. Thank you for this insight, though so very sad, this book is also a standing memory on how staff at Charity dealt with being left behind and ignored by the authorities and governing bodies, how they remained focused on their patients, and how they persevered through this tragedy. May they forever live in the knowledge that they did everything they could and are heroes in this devastating chapter of New Orleans.

[Mrs. Hassig]

My strongest memories of Hurricane Katrina were the thousands of poor people trapped at the Superdome for days and days, or the overpass on the freeway where people were also trapped and someone was shot. My Lowell Milken Center for Usung Heroes book club recently read this title. Written by a journalist that had only been in New Orleans a few months when the hurricane happened, it reads like a newspaper article and not a novel. Still, I learned about the treatment of the indigent white and black people in their hospital called Charity in downtown New Orleans and their five days of invisibility to the rescues going on in the rest of the flooded city. We saw the same thing during COVID. Your chances of being rescued or getting the shots you need to keep you alive always depend on where you live and how much money you have - Jim Carrier captured this sad fact as well as others in this short but effective book.

[Caitie]

I went into this thinking that it’d be a detailed account of what happened at Charity Hospital in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Instead, it was a general overview with little depth (since it was only around 100 pages). It was heartbreaking reading about what happened to the patients, doctors and staff….but I didn’t feel that the reader got much in the way of the “heroic,” but promised in the title. Yes, everyone involved was indeed heroic, but the reader didn’t get a good sense of why. Parts of it were interesting and I wanted more information but that’s not what I got.

[Steve]

I worked in a hospital for some time. I would like to think that I and the rest of the hospital staff would have been as brave and caring as the folks at Charity but I am glad that I never had an opportunity to find out.

This is an excellent book. It reminds us that people who work in hospitals show amazing dedication. But it is not just hospital staff; patients helped keep other patients alive and safe as well. This spirit need not be limited to hospitals, of course. Caring and courage are wonderful qualities for anyone..

[Modine Gunch]

This book is about a hospital, its staff, and its patients as well as the storm so it has some rough disturbing things in it. However, this is a story of hope, survival, and. determination. This hospital, with thousands of people in it during Katrina lost only 8 patients during the storm. It is an amazing tale and definitely worth your time.

[Kimi Meredith]

Very well written and honesty not a super talked about part of Katrina.
Really puts things in perspective especially with the current hurricane situation in North Carolina.
An important part of history and really reflects on some of the better parts of humanity during a crisis.
Highly recommend and it’s a short read.

[Michelle]

Healthcare Heroes

Quick read describing the horrors at Charity hospital after Hurricane Katrina. Stories of strangers coming together during a crisis. Strength, compassion and sheer will to survive.

[Cheryl Castle]

A true Katrina experience well narrated

Good read. Truly realistic to what occured. I am a Louisianian and to this day it is a nightmare that seems like it happened yesterday. Katrina will be a terrible experience I and many, many othets will never forget!

[Nikki Sarrat-O'Connell]

My mom was a nurse at Charity during this horrific time. Every bit of this book is true… like I was back in 2005 waiting to hear from my mom. Most of my family lost their homes, I know of others who lost their lives or took their lives due to the catastrophic event. NOLA will forever be my home ♥️

[Toots]

Excellent. Wish it were longer

A gripping read about heroic people about whom we all heard far too little. This book helps give them the recognition they deserve.

[Corinne Hall]

There are no words.

[Mel Garner]

It was very heavy. It really got me thinking about Hurricane Katrina and how the government failed to respond, both to the city as a whole, but also to those trapped inside Charity.

[Meredith]

A must read for anyone who lived through or is consumed by the first days after of Hurricane Katrina. I wish the book was 500 pages long.

[Laura King]

Excellent book!!

[Beth Toner]

Disjointed, full of grammatical errors.