The medical drama “Five Days at Memorial” for Apple TV+ is based on the actual discovery of 45 deaths following Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flood in 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 fatalities after lethal medication doses were found in several bodies recovered inside the Memorial hospital facility. The viewers must be curious to learn more about the two nurses and their current whereabouts as they were allegedly involved in the fatalities. Let’s discuss what we know, then!
Ex-Memorial Nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo
Who are Lori Budo and Cheri Landry?
At the time of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flood, Memorial Medical Center’s surgical intensive care unit employed Lori Budo and Cheri Landry as nurses. Immediately after the dead bodies were found, autopsies were conducted, and morphine was found in nine of the bodies. Budo, Landry, and Dr. Anna Pou were detained in July 2006 and charged with four charges of second-degree murder for allegedly giving four LifeCare patients deadly amounts of morphine and another substance. According to the show’s eponymous source book by Sheri Fink, the investigators thought Budo and Landry were Pou’s henchmen.
When Budo was detained while she was at home with her husband and two teenage children, Landry was detained while she was working at a nearby hospital. Nurses who had worked with Budo and Landry started a support fund to help them out financially. In addition to additional cash donations, Budo and Landry received monthly allowances for bills, food, and clothing. In the meantime, lawsuits were also brought against the two nurses by the families of three of every four deceased patients. In exchange for dropping the case against them, Budo and Landry were eventually handed summons 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 state of the LifeCare patients, Landry allegedly testified that she “had injected up to four of the LifeCare patients on the seventh level and two patients on the second floor.” She continued by saying that she thought they were all “going to die” and that she imagined they were all under do-not-resuscitate orders.
According to the source text of the show, Budo testified that she was “unaware of the medical problems of the patients on the seventh floor or their DNR statuses, 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 Sheri Fink’s source text, Budo and Landry eventually started 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 Budo and Landry’s happy faces posted on the bulletin board in the staff area.
A dramatized story of Memorial’s ICU personnel and their families, based on their experiences in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, was published by Budo in 2010 under the title “Katrina Through Our Eyes: Stories from Inside Baptist Hospital.” Except for hers, practically all of the staff members’ names 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 text, but the actor declined through her attorney. Landry and Budo have both made the decision to keep their private lives a secret.
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