Medical drama “Five Days at Memorial” for Apple TV+ is based on the real-life discovery of 45 deaths from Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding at a building housing Memorial Medical Center and LifeCare hospitals. in New Orleans. Dr Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were actually detained in connection with four deaths after fatal doses of drugs were found in several bodies found inside Memorial Hospital. Viewers must be curious to learn more about the two nurses and their current fates, as they were believed to have been involved in the deaths. Let’s discuss what we know, then!
Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, ex-memorial nurses
Who are Lori Budo and Cheri Landry?
At the time of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding, the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Medical Center employed Lori Budo and Cheri Landry as nurses. Immediately after the discovery of the corpses, autopsies were carried out and morphine was found in nine of the bodies. Budo, Landry and Dr. Anna Pou were arrested in July 2006 and charged with four counts of second-degree murder for allegedly giving four LifeCare patients lethal amounts of morphine and another substance. According to the show’s eponymous sourcebook by Sheri Fink, investigators believed that Budo and Landry were Pou’s henchmen.
When Budo was detained while she was home with her husband and two teenage children, Landry was detained while working at a nearby hospital. The nurses who had worked with Budo and Landry created a support fund to help them financially. Along with additional cash donations, Budo and Landry received monthly stipends for bills, food and clothing. Meanwhile, lawsuits have also been filed against the two nurses by the families of three out of four deceased patients. In exchange for the charges against them being dropped, Budo and Landry were eventually subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury without representation.
The Louisiana Supreme Court denied Budo and Landry’s appeal against their subpoenas, forcing them to testify before the special grand jury in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Without knowing the condition of the LifeCare patients, Landry reportedly testified that she “injected up to four of the LifeCare patients on the seventh level and two patients on the second floor.” She went on to say that she thought they were all going to “die” and imagined they were all under do not resuscitate orders.
According to the show’s source text, Budo testified that she was “unaware of the seventh floor patients’ medical issues or their DNR status, but they appeared to be dying.” She said, “I had given two of them injections of morphine and midazolam.
Where are Lori Budo and Cheri Landry now?
Lori Budo and Cheri Landry continued to work as nurses after receiving immunity. According to source text by Sheri Fink, Budo and Landry eventually began working at the hospital as nurses when Memorial Medical Center resumed operations as Ochsner Baptist Medical Center under the new management of Ochsner Health System. . When Fink went to the hospital in 2012, she recalled seeing the happy faces of Budo and Landry posted on the bulletin board in the staff area.
A dramatized story of Memorial ICU staff and their families, based on their experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was published by Budo in 2010 as “Katrina Through Our Eyes: Stories from Inside Baptist Hospital” . With the exception of his own, virtually all of the names of the staff in the novel are made up. Since then, Budo has made the decision to avoid the spotlight. Fink attempted to interview Budo several times while writing the show’s original script, but the actor declined through his attorney. Both Landry and Budo have made the decision to keep their private lives a secret.
