story4534.xml

story4534.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I remember coming out from OR suite # 5 where I helped start a surgical case scheduled that early morning of 9/11/01.As I was walking down the OR hall I noticed a few people standing close together in the OR lounge looking at the direction of the TV. I thought I'd go in to check and saw the first tower in flames. The TV news said something that possibly a plane hit the tower, purposely or not, it was not known yet.Watching it, I thought immediately of a terrorist attack.After a few minutes I went to another OR suite to continue my work while relating the incident to my co-workers and the surgeons in the room. As I was a float nurse that day I was delegated the job to find out more about the incident. I went back to the OR lounge only to see that the second tower was already hit by the second plane. I went back to the room to tell them the latest happening. When I finally got back to the lounge the first tower had collapsed.The OR staff who were there to see it happened where just unbelieving.We all looked like we were all ready to sob. Some of us had to call the schools to find out if we , as parents, were supposed to pick up our kids.We eventually cancelled all our outpatients who came for surgery that day and did only the in-patients and emergency cases.And proceeded on setting up the necesary emergency equipments that we might need if we do get casualties, being near to New York.The next day we had nothing on the OR schedule other than in-patients requiring surgery. One nurse at work called me at 5:30 am to tell me that the 2 of us were going to New York City to help, since there was not much on the OR schedule that day. We called our OR Supervior to let her know.And left for New York via the NJ path train.We brought with us some OR gowns and masks and gloves thinking that there will be a lot of work for us to do.I even asked my neighbor to take care of my son when he comes out of the school bus. But when we got to St. Vincent's Hospital we were told that they had more than enough medical volunteers that they need compared to the work at hand. There were maybe 14 to 15 survivors recovered early that morning mostly firefighters, before we got to New York.We were not allowed to go near the site now known as ground zero.But we walked all the way to Chelsea Piers where the emergency triage area was set up, thinking there might be some work to do there. We smelled smoke in the air and saw smoke coming from the site. But found only empty ambulances from different towns and states lined up on the avenue outside of chelsea piers and the drivers sitting on the curb. It was a desperate and painful site. Occasionally an ambulance siren would be heard but that was it.We met a few family members of some victims asking us for some informations but all we could tell them was what we knew then which was not that much.We went home feeling very helpless and disappointed of the painful reality that not a lot have survived in the 9/11 attack.