nmah219.xml

nmah219.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I was working in a small town in Oklahoma as a Nurse Practitioner. We had just started seeing patients when the first tower was hit. I continued seeing patients thinking that this was a horrible accident. The physician in our clinic came to my exam room in tears to tell me that the second tower had been hit. At this point, I excused myself from my patient and called my father who travels quite extensively both in air travel and to the city of New York to make sure that he was on the ground and ok. My mother and step-father along with my brother and his family were in Oregon travelling to state parks. I called them and told them to turn on the television before setting out on their journey that day. At this point, the pentagon was hit and it really felt like an attack on everyone in the United States. I kept trying to see patients since I felt that it was something that I could contribute. Our waiting area was full for the entire week with patients just watching the news, I am not sure how many of them were actually there to be seen. Unfortunately, there was a rotten side of society that appeared that day in Oklahoma... gas prices rose to almost $4.00 per gallon. Within a few days, prices were back to normal but it will always be unsettling to me that there were people (Americans!) out there trying to make an extra dollar during a national tragedy.

So many people lost family members and I have become very aware of how fragile life can be. Working in health care I already had an advantage over most in regard to our vulnerabilities. The flight that went down in Pennsylvania was very inspirational in that ordinary people acted in an exceptional way. I would hope that I would behave the same.

The bravery of humankind under extradinary circumstances. The generosity and spirit which makes our nation what it is today.

I wore an American flag on my lab coat. Although I feel that the American flag in certainly an important American symbol, I felt that it was more important to demonstrate American pride with personal actions. Not just with a display.