Where were u 9/11/01?

Nurses General Nursing

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They only reason I'm starting this thread is b/c where I was on this date will forever be memoriable to my nursing career. Just 1 or 2 phrases to tell where u were at the time of the attacks....

I was in Fall semester Nursing School, senior year....1st days on the floor of our Psyc Rotation....all the TVs on the unit were on. It was a very interesting place to be during such a time.

I was an EMT with the FDNY and was home asleep at the time since I worked 4-12's. My daughter woke me up and as soon as I saw the 2nd plane hit I knew it was an attack

Called my supervisor who told me not to come in yet and not to go downtown. We were going to have some very very long days ahead of us and they needed me to come in later to relieve others.

As I drove in from NJ the view to Manhattan was heartbreaking. I was the only car on the George Washington bridge as they were only allowing essential personnel in.

I spent the day scheduling shifts, calling hospitals because we hadnt heard from several of our emt/medics, and hugging those that came in filthy and with the look of grief and horror in their eyes.

I will never ever forget that day. It was in the weeks to follow that I decided that life was too short to wait for the right time... to go to nursing school and to generally stop being afraid to live my life.

Specializes in Psychiatry, Case Management, also OR/OB.

I was doing treatment planning on the Psych Unit I worked on... one of the nurses came in to announce that a plane had hit the WTC. I remember saying something like "Oh come on, a light plane can't do much damage to that kind of building" and she said "No, I mean a BIG plane has hit the

WTC!" The tv was on in the pt lounge area. I ran out to watch. We were all just... I remember saying "Nothing will be the same, ever again."

Senior year...health class...they were trying to keep the school under control so they were only telling us that an accident had happened. That was when the kids started to be pulled from class....mostly the ones who's fathers/brothers/aunts/uncles were in the towers. They reluctantly let us watch the news. My mom pulled me from school about 10 mins later. That day my father's care broke down...we live about 40 mins from NYC and right next to another airport which was being threatened...my father sprinted 3 miles home to be with us.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

The 1st day of my son's preschool. I didn't have the TV or radio on that morning. As soon as we got to school I saw everyone gathered around the TV, most were crying and all were in a state of shock. I just remember how quiet that building was. The children weren't making a sound and nobody spoke as we watched the 2nd plane hit! It was, and still is, so hard to explain to them what happened that day and why there is such evil in this world.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

My birthday is Sept 10th, I had had a wonderful day the day before. On the morning of the 11th I woke up with the windows open a gentle breeze coming thru the window and listening to birds chirping. I was laying there thinking about the day before, enjoying the weather and telling God how happy I was and how thankful I was for my health, my family and for such wonderful weather. Dh was downstairs I heard him say "oh my God turn on GMA". My daughter called from college crying and said "Mom I'm on my way home I need to be home with you." The world was forever changed. With the 5th anniversary approaching I'm still in awe that this could of happened to us. My dh is flying tomorrow. Please pray for his safety. It scares me.

Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.

I was getting ready for work (south west) and my night-shift husband called. He made no sense whatsoever. My mind didn't comprehend what he was saying. Turned on the TV and watched the Pentagon get hit and the towers fall. When I got to work (outpatient Drs office) the patients were all gathered around the waiting room TV, some crying. Hugged and cried with one of my patients then.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Wound Care.

I was working as an agency nurse at a local hospital, about 15 miles from NYC. I saw the whole thing on TV while washing my patient. Within a half hour we were on "disaster alert". They announced to the staff how many days of supplies we had on hand, and that no one was to leave. We were expecting casualties.. sadly none arrived.

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

i was working in icu and i was caring for my pt .we were not full that day and i saw a few people staring at 1 of the pts tv's ,at first i didn't think anything of it ,then all of a sound a heard gasp and oh my god looked up saw people crying and covering their mouthes in shock.then i realized something was going on i turned tv in just in time to see 2nd plane hit wtc .we were all so stunned .some of the staff had friends or family in or near wtc it was scary because they couldn't get thru.i spent that evening and next days glued to tv whenever i could.i prayed for everyone involved.i and my mom were supposed to fly to ireland for a 12 day tour on the 12th of course didn't happen but we did fly out that weekend once air traffic resumed we had a blast .we never know what the next day brings!

I was working in a SNF in CT on 9/11. We were starting morning management report and the ADON mentioned that a plane had hit the WTC. At first we wondered if it was an accident. Then we heard there was a second plane and we knew it was no accident.

During the day we, like everyone else, heard what was going on in bits and pieces while we tried to do our job. By mid-morning, the DNS and administrator called the managers together and told us we were on emergency status. We were asked to discharge as many residents as possible, as we were expecting to receive discharges from the hospitals so they could take in overflow from NYC. We did get two admissions that day, but of course the overflow never happened as there were mostly just deaths. I was supposed to be running a care plan meeting but the coverage was right there on the TV in the room and I finally said, "I can't do this," and we adjourned.

I remember one of my residents complaining that her TV reception was out for several channels, and why couldn't I fix it? Of course, the obvious reason was that these were the channels based in NYC and their transmission towers were gone. My biggest worry throughout the day was not for my residents, who all seemed just fine, but that the schools would send kids home. I wanted my kid in school with other people rather than being sent home to an empty house when we had no idea what was going to happen next. I don't remember any of the residents ever talking about 9/11 at all, not even among themselves.

Not long after 9/11, some idiot got baby powder on the floor in the staff bathroom and they had to call for a HazMat cleanup--anthrax, y'know. That wasn't much fun, either.

I was at work as a surgery scheduler, my grandmother called me and told me, I ran into the surgeon's lounge, we got the TVs on and we all cried. Three weeks earlier, I had been eating lunch at Windows on the World at the top of the WTC. I had gone to NYC on a vacation with the man I was dating at the time. Ironically, on the morning of 9/11, I had picked up my photographs from that trip, including many with the towers in the background as well as many taken inside the towers. Three weeks to the day. I was devastated, but I realize just how fortunate I had been.

I was driving to work that day and heard the news over the radio. A week later I was part of a team sent to assist with rescue efforts. Did 14 hours shifts in Ground Zero. I don't think I will ever forget what I saw there.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

We were on vacation in Idaho and Montana, 3 states away from home on a car trip. I had just come out of the motel shower, and demanded to know what horrible thing my kids has picked to watch, and didn't really take it in when they said "Mama, its real!" Their eyes were so frightened. Then the second plane hit.

My dh had died 2 years before on 9-10.

We spent the day at Custer's Last Stand, very very eerie, quiet countryside, huge and silent blue sky, no sounds at all except the wind in the grasses around all the stones marked "a Union soldier died here" or a "a Cheyene warrior died here", scattered over miles of the hills and fields where the fighting had ranged. The men were all buried where they had fallen, which is why they know today where to place the markers.

Eerie, eerie day. My throat kept closing off.

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