Chapters 16–18 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 16
Chapter 16 focuses on Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s father, Muafak, who worked with an auto-parts manufacturer in China. Muafak always enjoyed research and unravelling puzzles. For instance, the author explains, he obsessed over an intricate rug for many years, parsing out Farsi messages on it and researching textiles and art to find out hidden meanings sewn into the pattern. He also researched the family’s history, tracing two separate Iraqi clans back to a common origin point and reuniting many distant cousins as a result. He also traced their lineage back to a Nestorian priest in the 1500s, linking them to what was a subversive religion at the time. It is because of her father’s work that Dr. Hanna-Attisha knows the story of Paul Shekwana.
Muafak had a distant relative named Nuri. Nuri was a leftist political activist in Iraq during the 1930s and was active in attempting to end imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East. He fled to Paris when he became the target of Iraqi political retribution and eventually joined Spanish freedom fighters against the fascist ruler Franco. Eventually, he returned to Iraq, where he was caught and placed on a train to a prison fortress for political dissidents. Here, by chance, he met Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s paternal grandfather, then in charge of one of the railway stations that the train passed through. He gave Nuri water and words of comfort. Nuri was released from prison after two years, but after various revolutions, counterrevolutions, and changes in power, he had spent much of his life in prison.
Muafak and his wife fondly remember peaceful times in Iraq, but these were often short-lived. After his own father was imprisoned for political dissidence, Muafak studied engineering at the University of Zagreb. He met Talia in Baghdad, where they married and had Mark. Wanting to finish his studies, Muafak moved his family to England, where they had Mona. They had planned to return to Iraq, but by this time, Saddam Hussein was in power. Instead, they moved to the US, and Muafak secured a job at GM. At the time, the US supported Hussein, despite his brutality, and Muafak was vocal against Hussein’s administration. He become almost obsessive, listening to news from Iraq and showing pictures of the Kurdish genocide to his children in an attempt to impress upon them the gravity of the situation. This, Dr. Hanna-Attisha says, taught her never to look away from suffering.
Chapter 17
Dr. Hanna-Attisha prepared to meet with the mayor. She believed with her data and the fact that the mayor was a Flint native, she would convince him to call a state of emergency, despite the fact that he had supported the water switch. She donned a suit and left for her presentation. Before she arrived, she learned that Kirk Smith had passed a resolution to inform the public of potential danger in the water with his own health coalition. When she arrived at the health coalition office, there were about a dozen people there. The mayor seemed genuinely interested in her presentation, but others, such as the city manager and head of Flint public works, were clearly oppositional. The senator, Jenny, Kirk Smith, Dr. Reynolds, and one of the author’s pediatric residents were also there.
She began her presentation, talking about the children she saw at Hurley. She then explained what happens when lead is introduced to children’s blood, highlighting developmental and behavioral problems, and described some of the economic impacts that this can have on communities over time. She then turned her attention to water, explaining that Dr. Edwards had found high...
(This entire section contains 1751 words.)
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levels of lead in the Flint water, a result of the water corroding the pipes. This, she claimed, might explain her own data, which showed an increase in blood-lead levels in patients after the water switch. She compared her data to data from the rest of the country and other counties in Flint, where there was no increase in blood-lead levels. Thus, she recommended that Flint be placed on a health advisory and returned to Detroit’s water system as soon as possible.
At the end of the presentation, the mayor asked some clarifying questions and then claimed that he had been concerned about lead in Flint for years. Dr. Reynolds stood and echoed Dr. Hanna-Attisha, who saw that he could command a room. He spoke powerfully, punctuating the points that she had made in her PowerPoint. However, when he was finished, the mayor stated that the EPA and the MDEQ had told him that the lead issues were in people’s homes; there was no corrosion issue. He also suggested that Flint residents should be flushing their water—that is, running it for several minutes before using it. The city manager and head of public works backed up the mayor and claimed that there was no feasible way to change the water source. Dr. Hanna-Attisha stated that she would release her research to the public within two days regardless; the mayor could choose to stand by her, or she would do it on her own.
After the meeting, unsure of whether or not the mayor would stand with them, Senator Ananich, Kirk, and Andy (Senator Ananich’s chief of staff) began planning a press conference: Dr. Hanna-Attisha would finalize her research, the senator would work on legislative measures, and Kirk and Dr. Reynolds would try to involve more of the medical community. In the meantime, Elin and Dr. Edwards were working to put pressure on politicians and had requested access to EPA email records. Dr. Hanna-Attisha later spoke to Dr. Edwards, calling the MDEQ a bunch of “Republican bastards,” to which Dr. Edwards responded that he himself was a conservative Republican. This surprised Dr. Hanna-Attisha, but she decided that whatever political party anyone identified with, there was a larger issue at stake.
The next day, she has not heard back form the mayor’s office, and she is giving her presentation to a new group of doctors to get them on board. After the meeting, Andy suggests they release the research early, but Dr. Hanna-Attisha insists they wait. Andy then reaches out to The Washington Post, believing this can become a national issue. She receives an email from Dr. Edwards stating that they should take her research to The Flint Journal, reaching out to journalist that had covered the water switch with skepticism years before. Later that night, Kirk texts the team to let them know that the mayor has been trying to justify his initial stance. That Wednesday, Dr. Hanna-Attisha takes Bebe to an outpatient eye surgery and works on her press conference. By noon, there is still no word from the mayor, and his deadline has officially passed.
Chapter 18
The press conference was to take place at Hurley Medical. Dr. Hanna-Attisha agreed to meet in the morning with Ron Fonger, a reporter, to give him details about her study prior to the conference. Dr. Edwards had contacted Miguel del Toral, the original whistleblower, to let him know that Dr. Hanna-Attisha had found proof of impact. Although she was convinced that she had found sufficient evidence in her data to show that lead in Flint’s water was making its way into children’s bodies, she felt a sense of “aeb,” or shame. She describes aeb as “the idea that you were never acting independently of your family or larger community . . . if you behaved badly . . . you would bring shame not only upon yourself but on your people.” Anything that might be considered an insult or breach of etiquette can bring aeb upon a person and their family. As much as Dr. Hanna-Attisha hates the concept of aeb, as she sees herself as a divergent, progressive thinker, it still gnawed at her, and she feared that the press conference might bring shame to herself and her family if it did not go well.
The day before the conference, her husband and brother gave her words of support. Bebe, by this time, had found out about the entire situation, but she did not try to stop her daughter. Despite the support she received from her loved ones, Dr. Hanna-Attisha had trouble sleeping the night before. She thought about the Christmas cards that her father used to send out to friends and relatives, written as newsletters of family accomplishments. These letters would also detail the family’s hopes about Iraq and the end of the Hussain administration. She remembered how over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, the letters became darker and less hopeful, especially after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the resulting war with Iraq. She realized that her father’s dismay about Iraq was likely the reason she felt so passionate and urgent about the Flint water situation; she needed to fight against negligence and corruption. At 4:30 in the morning, she sent a text to Jenny to change one of the graphs and called Hurley to make sure they had the correct bottles and formula; she also asked a nurse to put a can of powdered formula in her office.
Analysis
In this set of chapters, readers are given two chapters that apparently have little to do with the plot of the book. Chapter 16 focuses on Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s father and his interest in family genealogy. However, this is a convenient way to introduce Nuri and describe more deeply the political commitments that run in the author’s family. This concept is echoed in chapter 18 as she thinks about her father’s Christmas cards, which became more and more politically charged as time went on. She states, “Maybe there was something in my DNA, an ancestral inheritance of persistence and rebellion and activism, handed down to me.” In these two chapters, she deeply considers her motivations for serving as an activist and spokesperson for the people of Flint. Ultimately, we are left with the sense that it is an amalgamation of events and people that have influenced who she is.
Chapter 17, on the other hand, is largely story-driven. Here, Dr. Hanna-Attisha shows who the allies are related to the Flint water crisis (her cadre of researchers and friends, along with the senator) and who the enemies are (the mayor and public works officials). Barring Brad Wurfel, opponents have largely been unnamed individuals at MDEQ so far. In chapter 17, however, it becomes much more clear who the heroes and villains of the story are.
