What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

Dr. Mona---is truly amazing and I just wish everyone had at least a little piece of her in them! She is a dynamo of the highest order. This book is so full of personality that it is fascinating to read---she takes you through the Flint water crisis moment by moment, a roller coaster of emotional experiences and we get to know her, which is essential to understand why this has meant so much to her. Unfortunately, the situation has still not been "resolved"---the outlines of a solution are there and the water has been switched back but there are so many problems that will remain for a long time to come, and yes, it has left the notice of the media. Hanna-Attisha's book will help but it needs good publicity and sharing. Power and money show more show up again and again as a potentially dangerous combination---it all depends on the intent of those who have those two things. show less

I have wanted to read this book since I first heard of it being written. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is the pediatrician who spearheaded the gathering of data in the Flint Water Crisis. Her patients were the most vulnerable in the population that was effected by the high instance of lead in the public water supply. She fought the powers that be with facts. We cannot say she “won” completely, but the children of Flint have a far better chance to thrive due to her efforts to create interventions for them. Of course they are at high risk for developmental challenges along with physical problems, but the planned interventions will go a long way to changing the curve on that outcome. She is a hero in my book. She did not do this alone and the show more book highlights many people who worked so hard to represent the interests of Flint residents. Sadly it also points out so many who were willing to look the other way and turn their back on the poorest and neediest of our citizenry.
Dr. Hanna-Attisha presented this book as a memoir. She did a masterful job weaving her ancestral history into her current day activism. She also included a lot about the history of Flint which included GM as it came and then went from that city. The book is well-written, backed up with impressive data collection, and heartfelt from beginning to end. The title comes from a re-phrasing of a DH Lawrence quote. The Eyes Don’t See What the Mind Doesn’t Know…a thought provoking take on trying to assess something that the mind doesn’t yet know exists. I found it fascinating that she picked up this quotation from a professor of diagnostics in medical school. How appropriate for that field.
Original quote: “What the eye doesn’t see and the mind doesn’t know, doesn’t exist.” show less

What the Eyes Don't See is a riveting read. Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician at Hurley Hospital in Flint, MI. Her narrative of how she discovered rising levels of blood in her pediatric patients and her battle to bring justice to the disenfranchised people of Flint is inspiring and maddening.

She describes her anguish and determination to save the children of Flint, how it disrupted her private and family life, and the brick walls and rejection she faced. Thankfully, she was stubborn and determined.

The callousness of political leaders toward the people of Flint as unimportant and expendable is despicable.

Flint falls right into the American narrative of cheapening black life.~from What the Eyes Don't See by Mona Hanna-Attisha
Readers are show more given a history of Flint's rise as an automotive manufacturing hub, and when jobs left, its decline to becoming one of the state's most impoverished cities.

The budget-cutting changes implemented under an appointed Emergency Manager explains how the lead-poisoned water came to be and how officials lied about the poisoned water.

If I had to locate an exact cause of the crisis, above all others, it would be the ideology of extreme austerity and "all government is bad government".~from What the Eyes Don't See by Mona Hanna-Attisha

Dr. Hanna-Attisha called out Senator Debbie Stabenow as an early and important supporter of her goals. The daughter of a nurse, and a former social worker, Senator Stabenow has a commitment to public health. She was part of a team that brought federal aid to Flint and the availability of premixed infant formula so Flint mothers did not need to use the lead-contaminated water.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a local heroine. I am proud to say that she was a graduate of Royal Oak Kimball High School, my alma mater. Her family came to Michigan for education but remained in exile from their homeland after the takeover by Saddam Hussein and the Iraq wars. Dr. Hanna-Attisha first became an activist with a Kimball environmental group.

I read an ebook through the local public library. show less

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha weaves a story that includes the history of Flint, Michigan and her own history. She paints a heartbreaking picture of the impact that lead poisoning can have, particularly on young children, and illuminates the perfect storm of greed, laziness, and systematic disenfranchisement that led to this tragedy. Her story highlights the risks and the toll it can take on the lives of activists, but also serves as a reminder of what is possible and what can be achieved when people are willing to fight on behalf of themselves and their communities.

A thoroughly well-done account of how Hanna-Attisha broke the Flint water crisis, taking on the indifference (and mendacity) of city, state, and federal agencies to advocate for the city's children. She frames her story well, moving between the context of her family story—activist Iraqis for generations, and immigrant parents who caught the tail end of the American Dream but made sure their children knew of the world's injustices—her own environmental activism as a teen and college student, her life as a pediatrician in an already economically-troubled city, and, front and center, the very dramatic story of her discovery of, and battle against, the urgent crisis of lead-contaminated water that affected the city's already show more disadvantaged residents. (Was that sentence long enough?)

Her recounting of her fight against the powers that be—all against the ticking clock of children's lead exposure—was well written, with plenty of suspense even though anyone who follows the news knows what happened, and her sense of urgency comes through clearly. It's a gripping story, and an important one. I hope this book gets a lot of play, if only to inspire future resisters and activists to stand up for what's right. show less

This is the inside story of the Flint water crisis from a pediatrician who saw it from the inside and fought to bring it to attention.

As a book, it's a little messy; it loops between scientific detection, politics, and a memoir of the author and her family (her parents are Chaldeans who left Iraq for the US). But her narrative voice is compelling. Dr. Hanna-Attisha is committed to justice for her patients, and she's passionate about the failures that allowed Flint's water to be poisoned.

The politics here are as sobering as the science. They led to the disenfranchisement and abandonment of a majority minority city; to the decay of its infrastructure; to the starvation of its finances; and finally, to the poisoning of its children. show more There's a larger story here, about our politics and our belief in governmental competence, and I hope other books will go further into the putrid details of it. show less

This amazing story is told by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint, Michigan pediatrician who forced Flint politicians and bureaucrats to acknowledge, accept responsibility and take action to correct the problem of Flint children being poisoned by lead in their water supply.

Flint, Michigan was a bankrupt city in crises. As a part of the austerity measures, Flint's mayor was reduced to a titular position and a manager was appointed by the state. As part of the move to save money, Flint's water supply was shifted from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Anti-corrosion chemicals to protect the pipes were not added to the new water – either as a further attempt to save money or through ignorance of the requirement.

Although Dr Hanna-Attisha was show more aware of this, and was also aware of activists' concerns about water quality, she believed the statements by public officials that the water was safe to drink.

But at a family cookout, an old friend of hers presented her with proof that all was not well. And Dr Hanna-Attisha only needed to look at her own pediatric records, with their mandated-by-Medicaid blood lead levels to confirm that all was not well.

This is a fascinating medical detective and political story. It's also a thorough account of the crises in Flint and other former industrial cities and of Dr. Hanna-Attisha's own story of her parents; immigrants who fled Iran.

I was afraid this work would be dry, but I am pleased that it isn't at all. Hanna-Attisha is an engaging storyteller as well as a caring physician with her patients' best interests at heart.

This book will be of interest to not only those with an interest in the Flint water problem or environmental helath, but is recommended to readers who enjoy a story of political and medical intrigue. It's also highly recommended for those who enjoyed [The Ghost Map], a 19th century investigation of water quality. show less