“Five Days At Memorial” Episode 5 starts with the entire Memorial hospital being held up at gunpoint. A tremendous disaster has gripped the people of Orleans, instilling constant fear in their minds. As the humidity in the air increases, so does the risk of death. Episode 5 depicts the fifth day of Memorial when horror crosses the line, pivoting the most tragic and excruciating moments of the patient’s survival. The fourth day already depicted the inhuman cry through the injustice done to the Orleanians, and that inhumanity extends to the fifth day as incognizance takes over the people. Begging for help when the hospital is almost exhausted, rescuers bring a glimmer of hope from afar, but their technical approach cannot accomplish the exact goal of rescue in a short time frame.
Expectancy of Life: Is It Possible To Evacuate All The Lives Of The Hospital?
The fifth day brings a nightmare for the Orleanians. Here and there, frozen bodies are seen lying on the waterlogged roads. The hope of survival fades in human minds. The Memorial reaches its peak of vulnerability on the fifth day when life expectancy is reduced. The hospital runs out of food supplies, water, and a minimum of faith that all the patients will be evacuated till the end. Meanwhile, as Michael Arvin and Steve monitor the telecast of the tragically destroyed Orleans, Arvin reports that the Memorial’s electricity has gone out, cutting off their line of communication. He reads out the last email that reveals their tragic emotional plight. Television buzzes with people around Orleans pleading with Washington State to stand by them.
Steve, with his responsibility, gives Arvin permission to send the helicopters from Dallas to rescue the Memorial people. As Dr. Horace and Anna Pou continue their relentless treatment inside the hospital, some delirium patients panic, and others have already sensed their impending end. When Anna visits an obese patient to check if he is alive, the patient startles with doubts about whether or not he will be saved. As Anna tries to give him false hope, the patient ends the conversation by saying that he used to be a nurse here, so he knows better how the evacuation will be conducted, keeping him and other critical patients on death row. The staff of the Memorial faces a strange conflict about what they should think about the pets in the hospital. Dr. Cook thinks that the most “humane” thing to do on that basis is to euthanize them as their evacuation is not feasible, at least not in the way they think. It is both very hoarsely difficult to hear and understand the situation, but this is how Dr. Cook starts euthanizing animals with the permission of Head Commander Susan.
Finally, Mark Le Blanc arrives with two rescue boats to save his mother, Vera Le Blanc. The boats arrive as a shining sight for the Memorial people, but Mark can only take a few more patients along with his mom. He runs into the hospital to find his mother, despite being interrupted by the doctors in charge. Mark is acquainted with the fact that doctors are suspended for providing care to dead-end patients. But Mark persists in rescuing his mother. As his boat can contain a few patients, the security guard, Charles, trickily hops on the boat to escape the liability of helping people. We previously saw him scare people to death. This might be his escape from the guilt he had preserved in his heart.
We see Dr. Bryant being principled; he gathers all the nurses to remind them of their duty. He states that he doesn’t care about the suspension order from the superior, but that as a doctor and a health care provider, everyone should provide their best quality care by checking their blood pressure and sugar and administering medications. Dr. Bryant rigidly opposes the idea of leaving patients to themselves.
However, the complexity increases when Dr. Cook’s wife is forced to leave her dog, Rolfie. According to the previous decision. Cook single-handedly kills almost all the pets in the hospital. Finally, it’s Rolfe’s turn, whose murderer doesn’t shake his hand, thinking that they should make a last-ditch effort to save their pet. Humanity is on the brink of destruction when Minnie Cook finds a place in a rescue helicopter to save a family pet. Dr. Cook still wears a tight veil over his actions lest he sink into the darkness of regret.
The Evacuation Begins: How Is The Evacuation Completed?
Eventually, the helicopters arrive. Susan orders the evacuation of patients, following proper procedures. However, patients with DNR and black wristbands will be selected as the last group. Distraught by the arrival of the helicopter, the LifeCare staff hopefully start the patient evacuation process. However, Diane focuses on rescuing the most critically injured patients. She informs another critically obese patient named Emmett that they will begin moving him soon.
As the LifeCare staff starts moving the critical patients, one of them begins agonal breathing on the way, so even after bagging her, she can’t make it out alive. Dr. Anna witnesses every patient’s death before her eyes. Susan talks to Anna about how she cannot help LifeCare because of not having the authorization to evacuate their patients. But she is simultaneously contemplating evacuating the selected patients who are alive. Even the critically bedridden patients are alive, but the difficulty will arise in moving them. Keeping this in mind, Susan asks Anna to talk to Dr. Cook about how they’re going to “make patients comfortable”. Anna laments to Susan that, despite being a lifesaver, she can’t save lives, just as she eventually gives up on her cancer patients. This time, the arrival of the rescue boat is like a gust of wind and causes a great stir of excitement. The rescue officers issue formal threats to evacuate the entire hospital within the next five hours, which all the doctors, including Susan, know is impossible. But they have no choice.
Dr. Pou understands the right time to discuss it all with Dr. Cook. A nurse, who feels obliged to reveal everything to Bryant, overhears that Anna and Cook are going to do something that will ‘end the suffering’ of the patients. Meanwhile, Susan manages to rescue her mother from the danger zone. She forces Horace to join the evacuees to save his life, as he is an elderly man whose health may be compromised. But in Bryant’s eyes, he finds no moral reasoning behind it, so disillusioned, he packs his bags and heads for the boat. Bryant can sense that Anna and Cook are going to euthanize the patients, even as he sees Anna administering drugs to the almost dying ones, which instills no more hope in his heart. So he has left him no choice but to give up.
Meanwhile, Lifecare patients are left with no way to save. Rescue officers forcefully drag the patient’s family members out of the hospital, leaving many of them unable to properly say goodbye to their loved ones. Diane repeatedly struggles with how to save her patients from death’s clutches. Diane arrives at Emmett’s to say her last goodbyes. But Emmett realizes his death is inevitable, so instead of being negative about his death, he blesses Diane and her unborn child with all his heart. Finally, when the entire evacuation process is completed by rescuing the critical patients from the Memorial, The rescue officers leave the hospital building empty, leaving the life-care patients as leftover waste, and we see them getting consumed by death.
How Are Doctors Going To End Patients’ Sufferings?
“Making the patients comfortable,” which is repeatedly enunciated between Susan and her fellow doctors, turns out to be a fatal decision. Dr. Cook and Pou are most likely considering euthanizing the patients to “end their suffering” forever. So Cook and Anna administer some drugs so that the patient can drop to death. This whole thing became a hotly debated topic in medical history, which will be illustrated more vividly in the next episodes of “Five Days At Memorial.”
Episode five explores the most brutal aspects of medical liability yet, turning a protector into a killer in the end. We still don’t get to know the identity of Bryant’s secret texter, but we’re somewhat happy to see Mark successfully rescue his mother. The next episode will turn the pages one by one to reveal the harsh truth before our eyes, so waiting for another week is all we have to do.
