story4850.xml

story4850.xml

born-digital

story

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no

2002-09-11

When that tragic event took place last year, I was at my job....Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel, New Jersey. I had just finished making a delivery to the ICU wing on the 4th floor. I remember hearing from one of my fellow employees "Oh my God, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" Right away I thought, "Right, sure, what's the punch line......but...there wasn't any....this was REAL.....VERY REAL. I quickly ran into one of the rooms where there was a television on and saw what was just told to me just minutes ago....I just went completely numb. Shortly afterward, I had to head back down to the 1st floor to continue my deliveries and between the time it took me to reach the 1st floor(by elevator), two of my bosses were standing in the hallway looking as pale as ghosts. I had asked if they had heard what had happened....and they said..yes Ray, and there was another plane shortly after that one and we saw it hit the other tower on live television! My God!! All I could think of doing was to quickly get to a telephone and call my wife and let her know what had happened. She had worked the night before, so she was very tired....but, with the news I told her she woke up very fast....and she became hysterical. I cried along with her and then we both calmed down. Shortly afterward I called my father to see if he had known what had happened...he did not know. And just as we were speaking on the phone, the next plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Right there I lost all control of my anger and sadness.....TOTALLY!
Now, during all of this time it was announced over the hospital p.a. system that we(Bayshore Hospital) were put on Severe Alert Status, and that we would be getting various medical supplies choppered in from our main medical supplier Allegiance. A total of seven helicopters came at various times throughout the day. Gradually, we did start to get some patients(mainly walk-ins) in the emergency room. Various injuries from smoke inhalation,cuts and bruises and the like. I believe approximately 20 to 30 people were treated at the hospital. It turns out that no one ever experienced this type of emergency ever before...not even close. I had asked my boss what we needed to do....all she said was" This is new to me too, and I've been here for 25 years." " Just get what we need when we ask you too and we will do just fine...it will get very busy around here." And that it did indeed.
In closing, I would like to say, although I lost no relatives or friends in the attacks, my heart goes out to all of those families who lost a loved one and to the many heros who helped in the rescue, recovery and massive clean-up efforts that took place: God Bless America and PLEASE LET US PRAY FOR PEACE!!! Amen.