email196.xml

email196.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-07-02

Hi everyone --

Pardon the big group email, but I'm just sending one out to everyone who's inquired about the last few days in NYC.

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Obviously, we have suffered a national tragedy in New York. I think everyone's prayers and hopes go out to all of the people who were senselessly killed in this absolutely evil act of stupidity.

I've recently received a bunch of phone calls and emails, and since the story is too long to explain to everyone separately, I thought I would send out this group mail to answer some of the more commonly asked questions, especially for those of you who are out of the state, or out of the country.

Before I continue, let me just say that I've seen and done things in the last 48 hours that I never ever dreamed even remotely possible, and it probably won't even sound real. (It freaks me out because I can't believe it myself when I say it.)

1) How are you Dirk?
I'm fine. Tired, but fine.

2) Is everyone OK?
Everyone in my immediate circle of friends is OK, but I have several friends in the Fire and EMS world whose loved ones are still unaccounted for.

3) What did you do when the World Trade Center got bombed?
I was working at Brooklyn Hospital, which is right on the other side of the Manhattan bridge, not far from lower Manhattan. I left the hospital and responded to the incident about an hour after the second tower collapsed.
I went with a group of four (me, a PA, a PA student, and a Radiologist MD) and went to go look for victims.
Before crossing the bridge, we dealt with a pregnant woman stuck in a municiple building in Brooklyn who couldn't get an ambulance, and whose contractions were a minute apart.
After seeing to it that she was OK, we put together a makeshift first aid kit, walked across the bridge (now closed to all but essential traffic), and walked down to the site of the building to look for victims or other doctors / EMS who needed help.

4) How did it look down there?
Very grim. The pictures in the news tell the story pretty well, except the dust and ashes were so thick I thought it was nighttime. The mask I had helped, but I still ended up tasting the stuff. The details I'll leave to the news reports.

5) What happened next?
I can't even begin to explain this part, but to make a long story short, there was a lack of early leadership in organizing the medical effort. I took it upon myself to assume a leadership position and organized the triage and treatment areas, and (with the help of the FDNY and a large dedicated group of doctors, nurses, EMTs, and paramedics) set up a MASH-style unit on the corner of Greenwich and Moore. By 2:00 in the afternoon we had a full triage area (critical care, subcritical care, non-critical trauma, and the "no-problem-but-need-counseling" areas), we had a MERV (a surgical bus), a team of surgeons, a morgue, a food area, bathrooms, and a complete record-tracking system. Not bad if I don't say so myself.

We had doctors from every specialty you can imagine, including trauma surgery, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, radiology (but no equipment), urology, pulmonology, ER, family practice, internal medicine, general surgery, psychiatry, and neurology. We also had teams of critical care and ER nurses, and also an entire team of paramedics and EMTs for codes and transport. And lastly, our counseling group included everything from priests and ministers (of every denomination) to psychotherapists, counselors, and social workers.

6) How many patients did you see?
Despite having set up almost a full MASH-style unit, and having been designated the "primary recieving area" for about two hours, we only saw 16 patients. About half were rescue workers themselves. We only saw one victim from the actual building, I believe, and they did not have a serious injury. The remaining patients were all people who were injured while walking from the site, or were having respiratory difficulty, or other injuries. We did have one firefighter who had cardiac problems while fighting the blazes - The patient was treated and transported to a hospital for observation. (Since the hospitals were not full on Tuesday night.)

7) Why did you have so few patients?
There were a few reasons :
a) We were not the only trauma center in the city -- FDNY had set up several similar efforts, in case the city had lots of patients.
b) Severely injured patients were brought directly to hospitals, as long as they would accept them. Our unit would have responded to either patients who would not survive the trip, or in case the hospitals would not be able to handle the capacity.
c) Sadly, there were almost no survivors.

8) What happened then?
At about 11:00 FDNY realized there were almost no survivors walking around, so they consolidated the triage centers and closed ours.

9) Did I really hear you on NPR radio?
Yes. I was interviewed by a reporter on NPR radio. I'm shocked to find out how many people heard the interview.

10) What happened at the end?
We cleaned up, people traded telephone numbers, and several doctors who were surprised that so much of this was being coordinated by a third-year medical student gave me their cards. By 12:00 midnight the site was clear, and all of the surgical and medical equipment was donated to one of the local ERs.

11) What is the mood like in NYC right now?
Surprisingly, it's probably not *as* horrible as it seems on the news, but it's also changed. That's not to say it's not completely mind-blowingly devastating, but the city has not come to a complete standstill either. I think people recognize it as some sort of event of enormous magnitude, since the NY times sold out almost everywhere by 9:00am.

Everything below 14th street is off-limits now, but above that people returned to work today, and many subways were running. Everyone is talking about it. I have get to meet anyone who knows they lost someone, but it seems everyone has a friend-of-a-friend who lost someone.

Sitting on the subway, I found there were actually some conversations NOT related to the attack, and some kids were still playing out in the street.

There is definitely a mood change, though. Broadway has been closed -- It doesn't seem right to have fun when you have that many people die senselessly. The airports are still closed right now. Some people are very angry and talk about quick retaliation. Others don't seem to care at all. It's a little hard to determine what the consensus is for



That's about all I can say. Unfortunately, it only really describes a part of what the day was like. The whole story is much more complicated and needs a good hour or two to explain, but I hope you guys will accept this for now.

Thanks for all of your email and phone calls, and keep your mind on those who lost friends and family in this terrorist attack.
Hopefully we do bring the responsible parties (and people hiding them) to justice.

Let me know if there are any more questions, but for now, thanks, and I love and think about every one of you.

Good night for now,

Dirk ;)

9/13/01

Report from New York