A message to Registered Nurses of New York and
Washington From the California Nurses Association
On behalf of the 38,000 members of the California Nurses Association, we wish to express our deepest admiration and support for your dedicated and heroic response to the appalling disaster in New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11. We share your horror with the terrible tragedy and deplorable loss of life, catastrophic injuries, and grievous suffering of many families. Additionally, we know that many of you endured personal loss of family and friends. Our hearts are with you. We are profoundly inspired by your instantaneous response to the crisis. Nurses throughout the metropolitan New York area and Washington D.C. and northern Virginia established an immediate emergency lifeline in hospitals and crisis centers to provide the best possible care to the victims and their families. Many of you worked, and continue to work, long hours in the most stressful circumstances imaginable. Nurses everywhere are filled with pride at your example. While we are 3,000 miles away, our members stand ready to help. Many have called asking what they can do to participate in the rescue effort. We have contacted Californiaıs governor offering our assistance, including, if needed, sending Emergency RNs or other RNs to New York or Washington to help, or to assist with blood drives. Please let us know if there is additional support we can offer to you directly. We have also been in contact with sister RN organizations in other states closer to the East Coast to encourage a similar response. As caregivers, whose first priority is to public health and safety, and the therapeutic treatment and recovery of our patients, we view this dreadful event as a solemn reminder that violence against innocent civilians is never an acceptable form of political discourse. Tuesdayıs horror serves as a sad and grim reminder of the need to seek diplomatic and peaceful solutions to conflict.
Respectfully, and in unity,
Kay McVay, RN
President, California Nurses Association
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New York Nurses Respond To Terrorist Attack
As soon as word of the tragedy at the World Trade Center towers reached NYC hospitals, nurses readied their units for the expected flood of patients and off-duty RNs rushed to their facilities. Some NYSNA members had family or friends who worked in or near the site of the devastation, but remained on the job to help the injured. Nurses in hospitals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey worked long hours without a break.
A group of RNs who were at a meeting at NYSNA headquarters in Latham returned to their facilities in New York City on a bus commandeered by EMS. As essential personnel, they were allowed to cross the Tappen Zee Bridge, which had been closed to all traffic heading for the city.
A call for help posted on NYSNA's web site drew such a flood of responses from RNs that it had to be withdrawn. The Department of Health couldn't handle the numbers.
NYSNA salutes the courage, dedication, and devotion of all those RNs who responded to this crisis, who demonstrated once again their unswerving commitment to those who need their care.
NYSNA has been coordinating recruitment efforts with the NYS Department of Health for those RNs who can help out in this national crisis. The NYS/DOH has notified us that there is no need for additional volunteers at this time since the numbers of survivors is less than expected. The staffs of the NYC hospitals are coping with help from local RN volunteers. The state will keep us informed if there is a need in the next days, weeks and months for volunteers. Watch this web site.
For your information, note that in the NYS Nurse Practice Act there is an exemption for federal state and civil emergencies. RNs recruited to be volunteers need not be licensed in New York State, but must bring with them evidence of current licensure in another state, further information on licensure can be found at <http://www.op.nysed.gov>.
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September 12, 2001
Notice For Massachusetts Nurses and Health Professionals
Interested in Assisting Victims in New York
The MNA has received a number of phone calls and emails from concerned nurses and other health care professionals interested in providing support in the wake of the recent terrorist attack on New York City.
We have contacted the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency as well as the Mass. Secretary of State's Office (who is coordinating relief efforts in the Commonwealth. We are also coordinating with the Mass. Department of Public Health, Mass. Medical Society and Mass. Hospital Association to plan additional means of support should that become necessary.
New York emergency services personnel are developing a coordinated plan to most effectively utilize the generous offers of volunteer services from Massachusetts physicians and nurses throughout the United States. They have asked that nurses who are available to help in the disaster relief efforts fax their name, credentials, contact number(s) and availability to Jennifer at 716-256-4043.
The Governor has also posted hotlines with information on how health professionals can offer support.
Here is that information:
Doctors who want to volunteer should call (800) 628-0193.
Nurse volunteers should call (508) 820-2085.
To donate food and supplies to emergency workers, call (508)820-1402.
We will update this website immediately when new information becomes available.
For Those Who Wish To Donate Blood: Donations are welcome. However, many donation sites report that they have as many donors as they can currently handle.
American Red Cross officials have asked the public to consider donating blood in the coming days and weeks to meet the ongoing demand. For a list of established donor sites, call 1-800-GIVE LIFE or visit these links:
<http://www.newenglandblood.org>
<http://www.mms.org/pages/blood_donation_sites.asp>
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Our Words Can Never Fully Express
In terms of human tragedy and emotional trauma, the events of the past week and horrific loss of lives and national suffering we now endure cannot be measured in words alone. There is no escaping the pain and profound sadness we feel for the victims and their families of these senseless acts of terrorism.
As caregivers committed to the saving and preservation of human life ourselves, we understand and share the deep sense of obligation being demonstrated by the tireless, heroic rescue workers and caregivers in New York and Washington, DC. Even as we go about our work here at St. Anthonyıs, and other St. Louis hospitals, we feel a deep bond of solidarity with the firefighters, police, nurses, doctors, and other hospital workers, as well as volunteer construction workers and other rescue personnel participating so selflessly in the dangerous and heartrending tasks only they can perform. Their collective determination and spirit is awe inspiring.
We must also acknowledge the great outpouring of local community support through blood bank contributions and Red Cross donations. And, we are pleased to commend our SAMC administration for being the first among area hospitals to offer counseling to area residents in this time of national grief and severe emotional distress. The dedication and cooperation by our Hyland Center co-workers in meeting this critical call is both gratifying and supportive of the feelings we all share.
In Solidarity,
The Officers and Supporters of the
United Health Care Workers of St. Louis
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(Editorıs Note: Ken is a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care.)
Cape Cod Times
Hyannis, Massachusetts
Dear Editor:
Freedom and democracy were attacked on Tuesday morning. Were arrogance, greed, intolerance for racial and religious differences attacked simultaneously? I am disgusted and angry to see the cheering and exuberance of some our enemies on television showing no regard for such massive destruction of property and innocent lives. But have I had the appropriate response to the similar loss of lives that have continued to occur in so many other parts of the world for so long? I don't think so. Perhaps this had to happen to us right here at home to wake us up. We can't as a nation continue to be so arrogant that we can snub our noses at those in the world who truly seek peace while we maintain the largest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. We can't profess to be so almighty powerful that we plan to spend billions of dollars on high tech shields to protect from missile attacks while so many people in the world are starving. We must calmly and rationally respond to this crisis as our leaders are demonstrating. "An eye for an eye" has never worked in the world's history and in today's world such thinking could lead to the total destruction of the world and all of its beauty. There are peaceful and nonviolent ways to solve this crisis. Let us calmly reflect, plan, and figure out a way to do it.
Kenneth E. Smith, MD
Hyannis, Massachusetts
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Help NYC Firefighters!
Dear Safety Online Subscriber,
In the wake of Tuesday's tragedies at the World Trade Center, Safety Online has received an urgent request for help from the NYC Fire Department.
The Fire Department is seeking DONATIONS of very specific equipment and supplies to aid them in their ongoing rescue efforts.
The supplies needed are as follows:
-- Industrial battery-operated lamps and lanterns (NO propane, please)
-- Shovels
-- Flashlights
-- Light sticks
-- Sterile isotonic buffered eyewash (in portable bottles)
-- Liquid ECG conductor
-- Emesis basins
-- Safety Goggles
-- Dust masks
-- Heavy duty work gloves
-- Bath towels
-- Biohazard bags, large
Again, the Fire Department can only accept DONATED materials at this time. Donations from companies in closer proximity to New York City are best, although donations from any area will be considered.
If you are able to help, please contact Jocelyn Greenwood of the New York City Fire Department at: 718-999-1319 or 718-999-2287. Please be patient, as phone lines are still very busy at this time. If you are unable to get through by phone, please email us at relief@verticalnet.com so that we may relay your message to the Fire Department.
Thank you for your assistance.
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Resources for Talking with Children About the Tragedy
Our hopes and prayers are with all of the individuals and families in New york and Washington, and acorss the country who have suffered inthis tragedy. In light of yesterday's sad events, we thought we wouldprovide you with some resources for talking with children about thetragedy. These are general resources that can be used by parents,teachers, and other caregivers to help children through these difficult days.
The following websites have useful information:
The Parent Center: <http://www.parentcenter.com/general/34754.html>
American Academy of Pediatrics: <http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/disastercomm.htm>
American Psychological Association: <http://helping.apa.org/therapy/traumaticstress.html#children>
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: <http://www.aacap.org>
Some general advice from the experts includes:
1. Continuously reassure your children that you will help to keep them safe.
2. Turn off the TV. Overexposure to the media can be traumatizing. If your older children are watching the news, be sure to watch with them.
3. Be aware that your child's age will affect his or her response. Adolescents in particular may be hard hit by these kinds of events. Obtaining counseling for a child or adolescent soon after a disaster may reduce long-term effects.
4. Calmly express your emotions--remember that a composed demeanor will provide a greater sense of security for your child.
5. Give your children extra time and attention and plan to spend more time with your children in the following months.
6. Let your children ask questions, talk about what happened, and express their feelings.
7. Play with children who can't talk yet to help them work out their fears and respond to the atmosphere around them.
8. Keep regular schedules for activities such as eating, playing and going to bed to help restore a sense of security and normalcy.
9. Consider how you and your child can help. Children are better able to regain their sense of power and security if they feel they can help in some way.
For more information on helping victims of the U.S. attacks, visit: <http://helping.org/promos/cs_wtc.adp>
The United Way of New York and the New York Community Trust have established a fund to help the victims of the attacks and their families. The September Eleventh Fund will provide immediate support to established emergency assistance agencies. Anyone wishing to contribute may send their donations in care of, United Way, 2 Park Ave, New York, NY, 10016 or call 212-251-4035.
Donations are also being accepted on United Way of New York City's Web site: <http://www.uwnyc.org>.
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Death, Downtown
by Michael Moore
Dear friends,
I was supposed to fly today on the 4:30 PM American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK. But tonight I find myself stuck in L.A. with an incredible range of emotions over what has happened on the island where I work and live in New York City. My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being awakened by phone calls from our parents at 6:40am PT -- trying to contact our daughter at school in New York and our friend JoAnn who works near the World Trade Center.
I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower imploded, and the person answering the phone screamed and ran out, leaving me no clue as to whether or not she or JoAnn would live. It was a sick, horrible, frightening day.
On December 27, 1985 I found myself caught in the middle of a terrorist incident at the Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead, both there and at the Rome airport. (The machine-gunning of passengers in each city was timed to occur at the same moment.) I do not feel like discussing that event tonight because it still brings up too much despair and confusion as to how and why I got to live. a fluke, a mistake, a few feet on the tarmac, and I am still here, there but for the grace of.
Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my illusions. I walk through a metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an x-ray machine, and I know all will be well. Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:
* At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The counter can't find my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead and get on" -- without a ticket!
* At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I just bought at the deli through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal detector, I hand the sack to the guard through the space between the detector and the x-ray machine. I tell him "It's just a sandwich." He believes me and doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone through neither security device.
* At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but decide to catch a later plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my bag -- no one knowing what is in it.
* Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter plane. By the time I have come down its stairs, the bus that takes the passengers to the terminal has left -- without me. I am alone on the tarmac, free to wander wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag down a pick-up truck and an airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the terminal.
* I have brought knives, razors; and once, my traveling companion brought a hammer and chisel. No one stopped us.
Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines consider my safety SO important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the bad guys don't get on my plane. That is what my life is worth -- less than the cost of an oil change.
Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in annual pay. That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in his hands. Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year. There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps -- and he was eligible!
Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is. So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines and the FAA is taking. They, like all businesses, are concerned about one thing -- the bottom line and the profit margin.
Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport security on the same morning at 3 different airports and pull off this heinous act? My only response is -- that's all? Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the "terrorist threat" and today's scariest dude on planet earth -- Osama bin Laden. Hey, who knows, maybe he did it. But, something just doesn't add up. Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a tent in a desert has been training pilots to fly our most modern, sophisticated jumbo jets with such pinpoint accuracy that they are able to hit these three targets without anyone wondering why these planes were so far off path?
Or am I being asked to believe that there were four religious/political fanatics who JUST HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who JUST HAPPENED to want to kill themselves today? Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot willing to die for the cause -- but FOUR? Ok, maybe you can -- I don't know.
What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything about this bin Laden guy except this one fact -- WE created the monster known as Osama bin Laden! Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!
Don't take my word for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year that laid it all out. When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his buddies in how to commits acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against us.
We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing. We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me. Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers! We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of innocent people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to interrupt our day one single bit. We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around the world, with our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza, in Salvador) that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when those orphans grow up and are a little whacked in the head from the horror we have helped cause.
Yet, our recent domestic terrorism bombings have not been conducted by a guy from the desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple of ex-military guys who hated the federal government. From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that possibility suggested. Why is that?
Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils. A key ingredient in getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the all-important race card. It's much easier to get us to hate when the object of our hatred doesn't look like us. Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the military; one Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear any more talk about more money for education or health care -- we should have only one priority: our self-defense.
Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes? In just 8 months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us again. He withdraws from the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the Durban conference on racism, insists on restarting the arms race -- you name it, and Baby Bush has blown it all. The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a spontaneous version of "God Bless America." They're not a bad group of singers! Yes, God, please do bless us.
Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush! Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such insanity.
Let's mourn, let's grieve, and when it's appropriate let's examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in. It doesn't have to be like this.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
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12/09/2001 13:01 - (SA)
Cosatu shocked by terror attacks
Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Wednesday expressed shock and disgust at terrorist attacks in the United States of America on Tuesday.
In a letter to the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisation, Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said there were no words to describe the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington.
"You must however know that Cosatu and its two million members and indeed all South African workers and people are with you and the over 13 million members of the AFL-CIO at this difficult moment," he said.
No course could be served through such indiscriminate attacks on unarmed civilians, Vavi said in a letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.
On behalf of Cosatu members, Vavi sent condolences to the families of the victims.
"We have not heard of such absolute madness happening at this scale before and we are simply shocked," he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in a separate statement sent its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and also condemned the attacks.
"Such attacks negate the most basic principles of humanity," the Red Cross said.
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Workers' Party Condemn Attacks On USA
11/09/2001
The Workers' Party of Ireland has strongly condemned today's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and a number of other locations in the United States. The party's General Secretary, John Lowry, said that the attack was an appalling act of carnage and he offered his party's sympathy to the American people and especially to all those bereaved and injured. "We in Ireland have suffered from thirty years of terrorist violence which has claimed over three thousand innocent lives. We are only too aware that terrorism, by its nature, is indiscriminate however the extent of the carnage now unfolding in the United States is unprecedented and dreadful", said Mr. Lowry.
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ICFTU condemns attacks in Washington DC and New York
11/9/2001
Brussels September 11, 2001 (ICFTU OnLine): The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is shocked to learn of the horrific events that have taken place today in New York city and Washington DC. At the time of writing, attacks have been reported on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon and Capitol.Hill in Washington DC.
³The news that the events have been instigated by terrorist groups is abhorrent and defies belief. Under no circumstances can such actions be justified², said Bill Jordan, ICFTU General Secretary.
The ICFTU sends its condolences to the families of the people whose lives have been lost in these workplace attacks.
The ICFTU represents more than 156 millions workers in 221 affiliated organisation in 148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also member of Global Unions <http://www.global-unions.org>.
For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.
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Greater Boston Peace & Justice Community Response
On the evening of September 12, a coalition of Boston area progressive groups held a hastily called vigil at Harvard Square in Cambridge. Its message was mourning, peace, opposition to counter-terror against the innocent, support for the Arab-American community, and a plea to address injustice globally (expressed in a leaflets, on placard blowups, and speeches by peace community, African-American, and Arab-American activists). The event drew some remarkably accurate and sympathetic media treatment.
The vigil was shifted at 2:30 PM from Copley Square in downtown Boston to Harvard Square because of a police assault and barricade in the Copley area (which netted 3 people of Middle East descent who were later released, having no connection with the WTC horror). Despite the late switch of the site, more than 500 people showed up at Harvard Square while another 200 who did not get the word, held a vigil at Copley. At the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, 4000 turned out to mourn and to demand no retaliatory violence against innocent civilians at home or abroad. In Montpelier, Vermont, a vigil over 300 organized by the local peace movement was addressed by the state attorney general. Events of this nature are happening around the country and it is reasonable to assume that such sentiments can play a significant role in pressuring Bush, et al, to refrain from a precipitous escalation as well a providing support at home for besieged Arab-Americans.
Statement distributed at the vigil:
We gather in this silent vigil to grieve loss and suffering beyond comprehension. Our hopes and prayers are with those who have been injured and with all those who have lost or continue to wait for news of loved ones and friends. We encourage mobilization of personal and public resources for the relief and support of the victims and their families.
We fully condemn yesterday's criminal and indiscriminate attacks which cannot be justified in any way. Violence is not the answer. An eye for an eye leaves us all blind. As our nation begins to respond, we believe more deeply than ever that peace and democratic process is the way forward. Military retaliation and war will only add to the carnage with the killing and maiming of still more innocent civilians.
Reliance on the international community, on US and international law, diplomacy, and exploring all roots and causes of yesterday's attacks are the path to true security. Further militarization of our society, scapegoating others, and additional restrictions on human rights and civil liberties in the US will have dire consequences and must also be resisted.
Join us in healing and ending the cycles of violence and retribution.
American Friends Service Committee
American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
Cambridge Peace Commission
Citizens for Participation in Political Action (CPPAX)
Boston Mobilization for Survival
Womenıs Action for New Directions
Womenıs International League for Peace & Freedom
World Federalists of New England
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Faces of America attend vigil
by Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe Staff
September 14, 2001
They came by the thousands, businessmen with briefcases, mothers with babies. They tucked American flags in shorts pockets and pinned red, white, and blue ribbons to button-down shirts.
They stood for an hour outside Boston's City Hall late yesterday afternoon as slanting sun rays disappeared behind the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, bonding in a show of patriotism, prayer, and grief.
''The world just seems so different. It's not that it's scary. It's just surreal,'' said Barre Giasullo, a public relations worker from Boston and one of an estimated 15,000 who turned out for the interfaith vigil.
''I needed to come out here and show my support.''
Political figures attended, but stayed away from microphones, solemnly seated in chairs lined along the podium. Speaking fell to leaders from across the religious spectrum who urged Bostonians to keep their faith and not target their anger at any groups.
''Give us the wisdom not to judge a whole ethnic or racial group by the abhorrent acts of a few,'' said Cardinal Bernard F. Law.
Flag-like ribbons steadily disappeared from baskets for fastening on clothing, dog collars, and fashionable purses. And on strangers.
''Thank you so much,'' a man told a woman after she helped him with the pin. He patted his chest, then clasped his hands together and tilted his head heavenward.
Turnout crossed the city's ethnic and racial divides.
''I wanted to be with all the people, to share the feelings of what happened to this country,'' said Oumark Mohammed, a native of Morocco who arrived in Boston six months ago. ''We are all the same - there is no difference between Americans and Moroccans.''
The crowd parted as American Airlines employees - co-workers of those who died Tuesday on two of the hijacked jets - decamped from four buses, wearing blue uniforms and waving American flags. They walked in double-file, drawing astonished gasps from onlookers, before joining the crowd in prayer.
As ''America the Beautiful'' rang out, hundreds dabbed their eyes with tissues. Then, worshipers dispersed silently, sifting back home to watch the latest news of recovered bodies in New York and Washington.
Others stayed on City Hall Plaza steps, immersed in prayer.
This story ran on page B6 of the Boston Globe on 9/14/2001.
İ Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Please Sign!
In the aftermath of the ruthless attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, we implore the leaders of the United States to ensure that justice be served by protecting the innocent citizens of all nations.
We beg that the President maintain the civil liberties of all US residents, protect the human rights of all people at home and abroad, and guarantee that this attempted attack on the principles and freedoms of the United States will not succeed.
We plead for a thorough investigation of the terrorist events before any retaliation.
We call for PEACE and JUSTICE, not revenge.
In Solidarity,
The Undersigned
TO SIGN: <http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/224622495>
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"That old law which says an eye-for-an eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth will eventually leave everybody blind and toothless." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Medical teams knew the worst early
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/257/nation/Medical_teams_knew_the_worst_early+.shtml>
by Anne Barnard, Boston Globe
September 14, 2001
Minutes after planes hit the World Trade Center, Arpana Naik, a surgical resident in New York, joined 100 other surgeons at Bellevue Hospital, expecting a torrent of casualties.
''It was like a sea of blue scrubs,'' said Naik, 31. ''We were gowned, gloved, masked, ready, and waiting.''
She braced for the greatest test of her career. She expected to operate all night and into the morning.
She waited. And waited.
By midnight, a new kind of anxiety took hold, one that hinted at the magnitude of the death toll. There were no trauma patients. Doctors and nurses were perhaps the first to grasp what that probably meant: The victims were all dead.
''Unfortunately, in this disaster, it looks like you either were killed immediately or walked away,'' said Dr. Greg Ciottone, an emergency physician from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He sped to New York with one of several Boston-based federal disaster teams, only to sit in frustration under a tent at Chelsea Piers, staring at the space where the twin towers once stood.
Yesterday, the entire medical establishment of the Northeast United States stood ready to help New York. Trauma centers from Philadelphia to Boston were on alert. Massachusetts nurses flooded volunteer hot lines with calls. Armies of paramedics waited in Lower Manhattan. New York's top surgeons set up mobile operating rooms and then watched helplessly, all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Dr. Steven Hofstetter, chief of surgical services at New York University Hospital Center, set up a medical tent on Church Street, near a collapsed underground parking garage that rescuers thought was the most promising place to find survivors.
He stood there with hundreds of doctors, from microvascular surgeons to ophthalmologists to the chief of thoracic surgery from Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. The doctors were the only ones with nothing to do.
''The FBI was pulling out pieces of jet fuselage,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''The dogs were there sniffing away.''
Workers busily carried bodies to a morgue set up in the Brooks Brothers shop on the corner. By comparison, doctors performed one surgery in four hours: amputating the finger of a rescue worker.
By yesterday evening, only 1,500 patients had been triaged, the vast majority of them treated in the emergency room and released. Only about 10 percent were hospitalized, said Dr. H. Leon Pachter, director of the trauma and shock unit at NYU Hospital Center.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said 4,700 people were missing, but doctors said they feared the toll could reach 10,000.
Yesterday's idleness was a far cry from what medical professionals had expected when they saw the twin towers collapse under terrorist attack.
Hospitals as far away as Boston canceled elective surgeries for hundreds of patients. Some shipped less urgent patients, such as those in psychiatric wards, to other hospitals to free up beds.
A disaster team based at Massachusetts General Hospital, led by Dr. Susan Briggs, scrambled to load defibrillators and ventilators. A pediatric team left from Children's Hospital.
This story ran on page A38 of the Boston Globe on 9/14/2001.
İ Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Contact Congress and Bush TODAY!
A recent post alerted people that Senator Kenndy is polling his constituents to see if they favor military retaliation for Tuesday's tragedy.
In addition to calling Kennedy at 617-565-3170, please call others in Congress as well.
The House is likely to vote soon on a measure giving Bush the power to retaliate (the Senate, sadly, has already approved such a measure, though calls to the Senate are still crucial. Call your House representative!
You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your representative's office (they may even be able to help you find your rep if you tell them where you live).
Other numbers to call include:
President Bush via the White House comment line: 202-456-1111
Senator Kerry: 617-565-8519
----------------------------
From: "Barbara J. Wien" <barbara_wien@usip.org>
Organization: United States Institute of Peace
Reply-To: bwien@usip.org
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 15:21:11 -0400
Subject: reactions in Palestine to World Trade Center
I returned home last night from a trip to find countless messages from friends
in the Middle East expressing their horror and asking how they can help.
They wrote telling me that ...
Last night there were vigils in the West Bank for the American victims. Palestinians laid flowers and wreaths. Palestinians held candles as they will do again on friday in support of the victims and their families.
Palestinian children were out there too. They held signs that said things like "Solidarity with New York" and "New York: We feel your pain, We are victims too."
I wonder why we never hear of any of this in the U.S. press?
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