Where Were You...9/11

Nurses General Nursing

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  • Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.

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allnurses Guide

NurseCard, ADN

2,847 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I had worked all night that night, and was in bed, had been in bed

for about an hour I guess. My husband burst in the bedroom door

about 930 am or so? He said "An airplane just flew into the World

Trade Center, it is NO MORE". Got up and watched TV coverage for

most of the day. I was terrified. I could not remember any other

attack of that magnitude on our soil, by foreign forces or terrorists.

Not in my lifetime anyway.

I was also in nursing school at the time. Actually thought that

classes that evening might be cancelled, but they actually were

not. Then had to go to work that night.

Specializes in ICU.

I was at work in ICU. Walked into a patient's room and there it was, on the news.

T-Bird78

1,007 Posts

I was 8 months pregnant with my first child and working in a billing office. I'd heard people whispering but couldn't understand what was going on. My mom called and asked if I'd heard about people flying planes with bombs into the Twin Towers. I'd been to NYC in high school, April of 1996 to play at Carnegie Hall, so she knew I loved the city. Someone had gone home and brought a TV to put in the breakroom so we could all watch it. One of my coworkers couldn't reach her daughter, who was a flight attendant and had changed her flight that day. She finally called and I was the one to answer the department phone, she asked for her mom and I burst into tears (again). She had left her phone at home and was routed to Orlando but was okay. I kept apologzing to my baby for bringing him into this world.

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I was working in an office in London (taking a short break from nursing) and I remember one of the consultants came running in telling us a plane had hit the World Trade Center. It was the afternoon in London. At first I didn't understand the gravity of the situation because coming from the UK I didn't really know what the World Trade Center was. I remember trying to get on the CNN website but the internet was in its infancy and the site kept crashing or wouldn't load because there was so much traffic. My then fiancee called me and told me that she was on emergency standy by for patient overflows as she was an RT in Connecticut....but no one ever came.

Then another consultant came running in and said a second plane had hit and we all knew it was a terrorist attack. I left work and went to the tube station where I bought a copy of the London Evening Standard which was hot off the press as it came out in the evenings not the morning. I remember sitting on the tube in a silent carriage as every single person's nose was in a newspaper. I've never heard it so quiet. Once I got home I parked myself in front of the TV and didn't move for the next 6 hours.

The following week I flew to New York because I had a trip planned to visit my fiancee. There were no more than 15 people on the plane...it was so bizarre. I literally had 4 rows to myself. When we landed all of us started applauding and people were in tears. It was the most surreal experience. To this day I can't help but cry when I watch the footage. It brings me right back to the shock and horror I experienced on that day. Now I live in Connecticut it has even more significance as I'm so close and my wife's family are from New York.

Amethya

1,821 Posts

Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

I was 10 years old in 5th grade. I was in Cursive Handwriting class and there was an announcement from the principal that said there was something bad happening in New York and not to turn on the TVs.

My teachers were whispering somberly, and a lot of my classmates started to leave early. I remember feeling jealous, because why they get to go home early? I wanted to leave early.

I get home and I see my mom crying in front of the TV and I learn what was going on. I remember seeing footage of the tower and people jumping from the towers. It was scary.

Then my mom said I had an uncle in NYC, who was a Biologist. I had no clue I even had one there. She had to use her calling card to call home in Mexico and ask how he and his family were. Fortunately, they were fine, and were safe during that hard time.

Specializes in Critical Care.

I was 11 years old, living in NY (not the city, but close to it). It was the most gorgeous day, I'll never forget that. Sunny and warm and perfect. I wasn't at school for some reason??? And my mom came out of her room from where she was on the phone yelling that someone should turn on the news. We didn't have TV, but we had radio and I remember sitting there listening to the NPR broadcaster freak out over what he was describing. That was what impacted me the most, hearing this voice that had always been so calm and collected and the background to my whole childhood, and that day it teetered on the edge of panic. I remember thinking at first that it was a really bad accident, then hearing about the second plane. I also remember thinking that they would be able to rescue the people on the top floors of the building. It's so bizarre to look back on the thought process everyone went through before the event had completely unfolded. One of the planes actually flew over the city I live in on its way to the WTC. My brother had just enlisted about a month prior to 9/11 and he called home and it was awful because we knew he was going to get deployed. When he'd enlisted, it had been a peacetime military and no one thought he'd really be in any danger... he ultimately ended up in Fallujah. My dad came home from work and just sat on the couch in shock (he didn't want to stay and just watch the TV at his job because it was so awful). I guess my experience was kind of unique in that I didn't watch it live on TV, I saw the pictures in the paper the next day and of course I saw the videos later, but I didn't actually watch it happen. Even at age 11, I had somewhat of an idea of how awful it must have been to have been in the planes or the towers or making the decision to go into the buildings and I was pretty upset by it for a long time.

I still am, to be honest. The older I've gotten and the more I've grown to have in common with the victims (age, education, having a family, etc.), the more I understand the difficulty of the situations the victims were put into and the more I really hate this day and what happened on it and the people who did this to my country.

osceteacher

234 Posts

Specializes in Practice educator.

I was working at Tescos, I remember the silence in the canteen. This and Princess Di are two events that really stick in my mind, even more so than say 7/7 here in London. I had been ambivalent to religion and world affairs but the imagery coming over from America really just struck a cord with me and ever since then I've been far more aware of the geopolitical situation and the harmful influences that ideologies like some aspects of religion can cause.

I can't even begin to imagine what it was like in NY at the time.

The subsequent wars were also an utter waste of life and all built on mostly lies and deceit.

Hoosier_RN, MSN

3,960 Posts

Specializes in Dialysis.
applewhitern said:
I was at work in ICU. Walked into a patient's room and there it was, on the news.

Almost exactly the same. But I was at the nurses station, having just gotten a call that my beloved grandmother was actively dying, and I needed to come now (to my hometown 200 miles away). When I hung up, a patient family member came running out and gave the news. Staff went into patient rooms to watch the hell unfolding. I left right after the 2nd tower was hit. That day I lost my sense of security in 2 ways...the grandma who always had a hug and the right words when things weren't right, and of course, learning about hatred that can lurk and attack from anywhere, showing us that we're never really safe. Other than the day my dad died (a few years later), it's the worst day of my life that I can remember. We should never forget!

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.
osceteacher said:
I was working at Tescos, I remember the silence in the canteen. This and Princess Di are two events that really stick in my mind, even more so than say 7/7 here in London. I had been ambivalent to religion and world affairs but the imagery coming over from America really just struck a cord with me and ever since then I've been far more aware of the geopolitical situation and the harmful influences that ideologies like some aspects of religion can cause.

I can't even begin to imagine what it was like in NY at the time.

The subsequent wars were also an utter waste of life and all built on mostly lies and deceit.

This just reminded me that for 9-11 I was in London, and for 7/7 I was in the US. I seem to be paradoxical. I panicked with 7/7 because I was so worried for my friends and family. I'm from London and everyone is still there. I'd taken those routes so many times to work. I couldn't get through on the phone for hours.

Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.

I clearly recall this day and always will. I was on a United flight out of Boston to Chicago, going to a nursing conference, and we were due to leave at 9 am. The flight that crashed into the tower was a United flight as well, and they were at the same gate as us (it was gate 5 a and 5 b). We boarded the flight and made it to the tarmac, but was held up due to "something suspicious happening in NYC". They finally sent us back to the gate and told us what happened. It will forever haunt me that we were sitting with all those Innocent people, and the terrorists as well, and did not even know it!!!

In my driveway, had just gotten home.

Quickly called my auntie to see if she had heard from her son, who works in NYC. Fortunately, he was not in the city that day.

Elfriede

258 Posts

Specializes in ambulant care.

I was on my way to an exam in podiatry, when I heard it from the car radio.

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