A doc that uses a huge amount of reporting - without citing or crediting me - won an Emmy. It wasn't even subtle; the doc is about the exact same nursing home company I wrote about. I spent months, dawn to dusk, on my reporting. I won a George Polk Award for it.
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Katie Engelhart
@katieengelhart
Contributing writer . Producer. Mostly reporting on ethics & medicine. Author of The Inevitable. katie.engelhart@nytimes.com
Katie Engelhart’s Tweets
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It takes a lot to pretend to conduct an intrepid investigation when another journalist has literally already published over 10,000 words on the same company.
My article on illegal nursing home evictions — published a few hours ago and already my inbox is full of devastating messages, from broken families. ‘Some nursing homes are illegally evicting elderly and disabled residents who can't afford to pay’
Thank you. I didn’t say anything at the time because I’d just had a baby and a surgery and I was too tired. But the Emmy got to me a little :)
Earlier this year, I travelled to #Charlottesville to speak with survivors of the attack. Months later, they were still struggling to pay medical bills and buy food -- and with no help in sight. This is a terrorism story, but also a healthcare story. HERE: youtube.com/watch?v=Dqu995
I asked #Trump's son Eric about the dramatic fall of the £. He said: a weak £ will be good for tourism at places like Trump Turnberry resort
What a powerful piece from Dr. . "The hospital is changing its rules, I said. No more visitors. When you leave today, you both need to say goodbye."
1/ New piece in . I spent months investigating the country's 1st nursing home outbreak -at the Life Care Center of Kirkland WA. 46 people died. Were those deaths inevitable, once the virus got inside the building? Or could it have been otherwise?
Deja Vu from when you laid off … me, without ever meeting me or speaking to me 🙃 twitter.com/Tyrangiel/stat
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It is such an enormous honor to win this year’s George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. Thank you.
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Polk Award for Magazine Reporting: Katie Engelhart of the California Sunday Magazine for her riveting 17,000-word narrative about one room at the Life Care Center, a Washington state nursing home that became the scene of the first known Covid cluster. @Katieengelhart
Cover of Sunday Review today. Thank you to all the people with dementia who spoke to me for this story.
My new piece, the cover of this week's Sunday Review, is about how people with dementia have experienced the pandemic. What does it feel like to live through this terribly disorienting time inside a mind that is already deeply disoriented?
What happens to survivors of terrorism in America, after the news cycle moves on?? In #Charlottesville, survivors of the Unite the Right rally & car attack tell me that they're struggling to pay medical bills. #A12
My documentary:
At long last, my first book is out in the world! If you live in the US / Canada, you can buy The Inevitable TODAY.
Last year, I spent several months with a woman named Debra, in Oregon, as she planned to take her life -- because she had been diagnosed with dementia and didn't want to lose herself. My piece is out in :
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Important point here: The Trump administration made changes that *reduced* fines against nursing homes that harm or endanger residents.
This was a tough story to report. Every year, thousands of Americans are evicted from nursing homes against their wishes — sometimes illegally because they’re low-income and on state assistance. Here's my report for .
The driver behind the car attack in #Charlottesville has pled guilty to federal hate crimes. Let's not forget that the people he hurt are still hurting. My report on the survivors, some of whom were left disabled and (without healthcare) impoverished:
Second cop just told me that there is a bomb alert at the Eiffel Tower. We've been evacuated across the bridge. #ParisAttacks
Hello, I wrote a book. It took years and years, but now it’s available to preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop and lots of other places. us.macmillan.com/theinevitable/
Big announcement: On Monday, I'll be joining as a staff journalist, based in London. PUMPED. http://t.co/8hv9pyMqvz
In 2017 I did this report about an "excited delirium" death in Texas. Norman Cooper (33, unarmed Black man) was tased MANY TIMES by officers & died in policy custody. While restrained. Still, an expert determined that he died of "excited delirium" youtube.com/watch?v=_8080v
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Morning All. In the #GeorgeFloyd case, keep your eye on the fact that the police put the term “excited delirium” in the arrest paperwork for Chauvin. I worked a high-profile excited delirium case a decade ago (“DC 9” case). I suspect we’ll be hearing more about excited delirium.
Doc filmmakers who I have *never met before*: Please stop emailing me to ask if I will hook you up with a terminally ill person who is within several months of death. I would never; I will not! This is an inappropriate request! (Also lazy. Lots of people are dying. Find one.)
Fantastic reporting from . This was not a reactive move. This was part of an administration game plan from Day 1:
msnbc.com/ali-velshi/wat
I am tingling all over! Such a smart, generous review of my book in this week's -- by . She calls The Inevitable "a remarkably nuanced, empathetic, and well-crafted work of journalism."
My latest article is on the cover of this weekend's , and is published online today. It asks: When exactly does a person with dementia lose the ability, and then perhaps the right, to choose for herself?
Anyone in the vicinity of NYC should urgently buy tickets to #Yerma at . It's so devastating that I almost vomited in my seat, which doesn't sound like an endorsement but it is. is breathtaking. cc'
I remember when we were baby reporters at Vice — and colleagues basically being coached in how to disdainfully dismiss print journalists who called after their stories were copied.
The 1933 Reichstag Fire piece we've all been waiting for. nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/
It is an enormous honor to win this year's John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism. Thank you for the recognition:
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Thank you Paige! The Seattle Times reporters did such good work in the early weeks of the pandemic.
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Here’s a particularly striking email I just received:
Trying to be careful in our reporting here. Three police have confirmed to a "bomb threat" at Eiffel Tower. #ParisAttacks
Reading world: My book, The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die, is out in paperback today. Please buy a copy!
I just asked a cop what's going on. He made a gesture with his hand and said "boom." Bomb threat at Eiffel Tower. is on the scene.
A bit of personal news for Twitter: After a few interesting and illuminating years, I'm leaving -- to strike out on my own and (finally) finish my book. Time for something new. I write, I produce docs, I do on-camera hosting.☎️ me.
Thrilled to be featured in this doc: about colonial crimes in Kenya & UK gov efforts to keep them secret radiolab.org/story/mau-mau/
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4/ I get into nursing home finances. By 2000, nursing homes were a $100 billion industry. 70% are private. They receive billions in public $ but are not even required to publish financial reports. The largest 5 chains have been accused of fraudulent practices by the federal gov.
I'm breaking 'Exclusive: The UK Has Just Unearthed New 'Top Secret' Colonial-Era Government Files' #Empire news.vice.com/article/exclus
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At least once a week, get away from your computer, sit down with pen and paper, and write what you remember. What you FEEL. Then use that to inform your next step. Sometimes my natural instincts and emotions got buried under the big Scrivener file...
And here’s my first piece for magazine — on “social robots” for lonely old people: newyorker.com/magazine/2021/
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5/ The Life Care Centers of America is owned by a billionaire. Its Kirkland facility received nearly $1 million in COVID relief. Still, it does not pay the salaries of staff members who contract COVID on the job.
French President Hollande describes France as being "at war." Some attackers born & raised in France. If a "war," a messy civil one. #Paris
My first book, The Inevitable, is out today. I’m thrilled to share this excerpt — published in . It’s an adaptation of Chapter 1, about a doctor in California who runs a one-stop-shop assisted death clinic.
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“People try to help me,” one patient said. “But I think I am done needing help.” @katieengelhart writes on illness, dignity, and the doctor who has performed more assisted deaths than anyone else in California. on.theatln.tc/tKdRvs6
At some American hospitals, ventilators are already in short supply, as a result of the COVID pandemic. What happens when there aren’t enough to go around? Who gets the chance to live, and who is left to die? My latest .
Volunteer in Munich met man whose shoulders were both broken - from carrying his disabled son through #Hungary. #RefugeeCrisis
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6/ I look at regulation. For decades, infection control violations have been categorized as low-level offenses. Often nursing homes aren’t even fined for them. We see the effects now. In March, mid-pandemic, 1/3 of nursing homes had staff who didn’t wash their hands properly.
This is an enormous honor. Thank you committee. I never dreamed that a 16,000 word story on nursing homes would have this kind of reach.
I hope you'll read the piece, if you haven't. This is an important time to be reconsidering the for-profit American nursing home.
Inside Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Scientology School
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So-called excited delirium deaths often occur in police custody. But major American medical associations (ie: the American Medical Association) do not even recognize it as a real condition.
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2/ My priority was to understand this story from the perspective of ind’l nursing home residents. They watched friends die around them in extraordinary numbers. This population is often written 'about,' but not understood. About 3% of US nursing home residents have died of COVID.
Talk about a high school yearbook photographer! twitter.com/haykorr/status
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I spent 5 years reporting this book & finished the project feeling more uncertain than when I began. It was thrilling to write about something so morally tangled — to search and search and not land on firm answers. I'd love if you would buy the book & let me know what you think.
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I spoke with a cardiologist who reviewed Norman Cooper's medical records. He told me: "Excited delirium syndrome is used by police departments all over the country as a sort of 'get out of jail free' card."
It was an enormous honor — and even greater pleasure — to speak with the one and only Terry Gross. Listen to our conversation about my new book, The Inevitable, on today's episode of Fresh Air. 📻
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TODAY: Inside the right-to-die movement. We talk with journalist @katieengelhart about legal physician-assisted death, the so-called "euthanasia underground," and the ethical questions surrounding the issue. Her book is 'The Inevitable.'
So pleased to have made the finalist list -- along with so many reporters I admire: and on and on.
New Mexico has the dubious distinction of holding the most untested rape kits per capita in America. Around 4000 have been collecting dust at this police facility in Albuquerque. 1000s of women, 1000s of alleged rapes, 1000s of broken promises. Stay tuned
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Your error is assuming there is only one Wolf Blitzer and not an army of cloned Wolves Blitzer who can cumulately live on air 24/7.
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What do you expect the outcome of your expression of "profound disquiet" to be? Also stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
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3/ This is the story of two women who lived in the nursing home, in side-by-side beds, for over a year. One died. The other lived. One daughter is suing the nursing home. The other thinks Life Care staff did everything right - or, at least, everything they could.
Just spoke with a 24 year old Syrian refugee named Sami. He studied French literature back home. Has a soft spot for Baudelaire.
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I spoke to a rep from Axon (which makes Tasers). Yrs ago, the company started educating cops about excited delirium & introducing the diagnosis into courts. Axon reps reach out to police when people die in their custody, after being tased - and suggest excited delirium as a cause
In East Ukraine, I met Jewish people fleeing the region - and the Israeli organizations helping them do it
This is friendly reminder that my first book, The Inevitable, is coming out in 6 weeks. You can preorder it now and I would be so happy if you did.
Convoy of black cars with tinted windows just drove Eiffel Tower area, which has been evacuated. Police escort. Shouting cops.
This is a lovely interview - on design and Hollywood. Which answers the critical question — why is paper, in period dramas, depicted in sepia tone?: 99percentinvisible.org/episode/hero-p
A self-proclaimed “disrupter” attempts, with zero experience in video/digital journalism, to “disrupt” an entire medium. And fails. Remind me why inexperienced men who promise to break everything keep getting these opportunities?
I'm so heartbroken to hear that is closing. It was a beautiful, important magazine. I'm very grateful to have written for it -- and for my editor, , who I will follow anywhere.
For years, has had a reporter who very obviously & deeply & emotionally opposes the Right to Die cover the subject for the wire service. I wonder how this single journalist, whose stories are published/adapted/translated by global outlets, has shaped the cultural debate.
Third cop told that Eiffel Tower area has been evacuated because of bomb threat. We've been pushed across the bridge #ParisAttacks
Ok Paris police HQ just confirmed to that Eiffel Tower incident was a false alarm. Area had been evacuated after bomb scare.
State of emergency has left Paris streets very quiet. No mass, cathartic outpourings. No standard neo-Nazi displays. Quiet.
Took me an hour of searching, but I finally found the precise David Carr quote I was looking for -- to share with Columbia J-School students on Thursday. A jewel of advice from , 2011: npr.org/templates/tran
After 2+ years at VICE News, I'm returning to the wild west of freelance journalism. Words & Films. Commission me at kmengelhart@gmail.com.
A train of people arrive from Budapest into Munich train station. Welcome to Deutschland. #RefugeeCrisis
My book, The Inevitable, is coming out TOMORROW. I hope you'll order it. In the meantime, I have a few events scheduled (more to come) - and I'd love for you to register/join.
On March 9, I'll be in conversation with , hosted by .
A month after the attacks. We're filming today in Le Marais, the historic Jewish quarter in central Paris
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Canada too! Some enterprising American journalist should write a long piece about the failure of the much-venerated Canadian healthcare system and the much-hyped Canadian prime minister.
Following my appearance on 's 'Mau Mau' episode, I've pulled a selection of my reporting on the story. HERE:
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In 2017, investigated each non-shooting death of a person in police custody, in Texas, since 2015. More than one in six of the 289 such deaths were attributed to excited delirium. Nearly 85% involved Black or Hispanic men. statesman.com/news/20170527/
If you liked my California Sunday piece, I think you’ll really like my book. Please order! It’s coming out on Tuesday. 🙏
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Huge congratulations to @KatieEngelhart, author of the book The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die, for winning The George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting! twitter.com/PolkAwards/sta…