The medical drama “Five Days at Memorial” for Apple TV+ is based on the true discovery of 45 deaths in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding in a building that houses Memorial Medical Center and LifeCare hospitals in New Orleans. Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry have been arrested in connection with four deaths after lethal doses of medication were found on several recovered bodies inside the Memorial hospital facility. Viewers should be curious to find out more about the two nurses and their current whereabouts, as they were allegedly involved in the deaths. Let’s discuss what we know, then!
Who are Lori Budo and Cheri Landry?
At the time of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding, Memorial Medical Center’s surgical intensive care unit employed Lori Budo and Cheri Landry as nurses. Immediately after the bodies were found, autopsies were performed and morphine was found on 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 supplying four LifeCare patients with deadly amounts of morphine and another substance. According to the show’s eponymous source book by Sheri Fink, investigators thought that Budo and Landry were Pou’s henchmen.
When Budo was detained while at 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. In addition to additional cash donations, Budo and Landry received monthly allowances for bills, food, and clothing. Meanwhile, the families of three out of four deceased patients also filed lawsuits against the two nurses. In exchange for dropping the case against him, Budo and Landry were eventually given subpoenas to testify before the grand jury without representation.
The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected 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 medical status of the LifeCare patients, Landry allegedly testified that she “had injected as many as 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 that she imagined they were all under do not resuscitate orders.
According to the show’s source text, Budo testified that he was “not aware of the medical problems of the patients on the seventh floor or their DNR statuses, but they seemed to be dying.” She said: “Two of them had been given 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 Sheri Fink’s source text, 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 remembered seeing the happy faces of Budo and Landry on the bulletin board in the staff area.
A dramatized history of Memorial ICU staff and their families, based on their experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was published by Budo in 2010 under the title “Katrina Through Our Eyes: Stories from Inside Baptist Hospital.” Except for hers, virtually all the names of the staff members in the novel are made up. Since then, Budo has made a decision to avoid being the center of attention. Fink tried to interview Budo several times while he was writing the original script for the show, but the actor refused through his lawyer. Landry and Budo have made the decision to keep their private lives a secret.
