@article {Iwaie8, author = {Yoshiko Iwai and Sarah Holdren and Leah Teresa Rosen and Nina Y Hu}, title = {Narrative trajectories of disaster response: ethical preparedness from Katrina to COVID-19}, volume = {48}, number = {2}, pages = {e8--e8}, year = {2022}, doi = {10.1136/medhum-2021-012194}, publisher = {Institute of Medical Ethics}, abstract = {While COVID-19 brings unprecedented challenges to the US healthcare system, understanding narratives of historical disasters illuminates ethical complexities shared with COVID-19. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina revealed a lack of disaster preparation and protocol, not dissimilar to the challenges faced by COVID-19 healthcare workers. A case study of Memorial Hospital during Hurricane Katrina reported by journalist-MD Sheri Fink reveals unique ethical challenges at the forefront of health crises. These challenges include disproportionate suffering in structurally vulnerable populations, as seen in COVID-19 where marginalised groups across the USA experience higher rates of disease and COVID-19-related death. Journalistic accounts of Katrina and COVID-19 offer unique perspectives on the ethical challenges present within medicine and society, and analysis of such stories reveals narrative trajectories anticipated in the aftermath of COVID-19. Through lenses of social suffering and structural violence, these narratives reinforce the need for systemic change, including legal action, ethical preparedness and physician protection to ensure high-quality care during times of crises. Narrative Medicine{\textemdash}as a practice of interrogating stories in medicine and re-centering the patient{\textemdash}offers a means to contextualise individual accounts of suffering during health crises in larger social matrices.No data are available. This is a narrative analysis of journalistic accounts using narrative medicine. There are no data associated with this manuscript.}, issn = {1468-215X}, URL = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/48/2/e8}, eprint = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/48/2/e8.full.pdf}, journal = {Medical Humanities} }