In honor of 9/11.... what was it like as a nurse?

[A&OxNone]

I was on my way home from work, listening to the radio, and everybody is playing things in honor of 9/11.

Today is my birthday. On 9/11, I was getting my drivers license.

I was too young to understand what was happening. And certainly not able to comprehend what it must be like to be there or to have to requires to give patient care during all that. Now, older and a nurse, I wonder how did you do it?

Was anybody on this forum working as a nurse that day? In NY or Washington? Or, even if you weren't there, what did that day mean for the hospital, anywhere in America? It's hard to imagine the world didn't just stand still.

Stories, anybody?

[pinkiepie_RN]

I was 14 and in 9th grade English class. I can't believe it's been 10 years. I've lived and grown so much since then. I'm much more aware of politics now. I work in psych, so I can only imagine my colleagues were either allowing the patients to watch TV or doing a hell of a lot of de-briefing and grief counseling or distraction.

[glencovediva]

I was in nursing school and working as a lab supervisor at a specialty hospital in midtown manhattan in NYC.My co-worker was listening to Z-100 radio station and they said a plane flew in the WTC. At first I thought it was one of the stations "phone scams" that they were always doing, an I laughed. But my co-worker insisted it was not. I still didn't believe it. Soon everybody was saying that a plane hit the twin towers. We all gathered in the lobby to watch the tv, an sure enough, the first tower was on fire. Then, all of a sudden, I saw the second plane hit the other building live on tv. We all screamed. Then we were placed on disaster alert. We were going to be a staging area as the victims were going to go to area trauma centers. Unfortunately, no one survived. A group of us walked home that night over the 59th Street bridge. 35 years ago, I used to work as a bank teller in the tower that had Windows on The World, so I was very familiar that building. To this day, I just can't believe those buildings that I knew so long ago are not there anymore.

[Rockwood]

Presently I work on BHU as RN at Somerset Hospital, Somerset PA. On Sept 11th 2001 I was a social worker, at the hospital, when our hospital went to code yellow for a national disaster. Our hospital is located only a few miles from Shanksville Pa, site of Flight 93. Our hospital, local EMS, and so many of our community resources waited to provide any assistance needed. We along with everyone else were in shock as there was no patients to treat. The aftermath of this disaster, has demonstrated how resourceful all Americans can be assisting each other at thier time of need.

[tachybradyRN]

i was a freshman in my first week of a private high school on long island. spanish class was second period and that's where i was when an announcement came over the loudspeaker that we were to turn on televisions and that one of the wtc buildings had been hit by an errant plane. at that point, we all still thought it was an accident. a few minutes after the tv was turned on, we watched as the second plane hit. there are no words to describe the emotionality of that room. shocked silence, tears.. it was horrible. i remember my spanish teacher's husband worked at the wtc, and she was anxiously calling him again and again. for the rest of the day we stayed in our third period classes, which for me was the chorus room, and many students called home or were picked up early. the day ended around 11:00 am and we all headed home, many of us to grieve. gratefully, i didn't lose anyone close to me on 9/11, but i will always remember that feeling of powerlessness. my mom says it's what drove her to become a nurse; she wanted to be able to respond to that or another mass emergency. she started nursing school the next year.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I was a senior in high school.

My hometown is, as the crow flies, within 100 miles of all three tragic sites, so several students and teachers had loved ones who worked in DC and NYC, or who were based at the Air Force base near us (which is also where all soldiers' bodies are taken when killed overseas - it's not a huge base but it is quite important), and we are surrounded by bridges and very close to nuclear plants.

Everything was so close to us that we didn't have time to be emotional. We were sent home early because of our geographical location.

I went home, didn't eat dinner, didn't study for an exam. I just...was there. I remember trying to call my dad to tell him I was on my way home from school, but the circuits were jammed. I couldn't find any music on the radio. I felt like I was in some post-apocalyptic world. The cable was down at school so we couldn't watch coverage, and the fact that stuff was going on around us but we didn't know what happened was terrifying.

When it was announced we were being dismissed, no one cheered. I was at lunch and everyone was sitting there quietly with uneaten food in front of them. Students were lined up to use the office phones to check on parents and other loved ones. A friend's mom was in the Pentagon. She was able to walk out under her own power but had to walk past bodies. Another student received a call from his dad (before any of us knew what was going on) to tell him not to worry, he was okay. His dad worked in one of the towers but had left for a meeting. Another friend's dad was literally stuck in an airport...in Pittsburgh I believe, on a layover for a business flight, but Ashley didn't know that and because of the cell phone situation couldn't reach him.

I had forgotten a lot of this. When you're 27 you're a completely different person than when you're 17 no matter what happens in the 10 years in between. I just remember our senior class getting along a lot better than before after this. This terrible day defined 12th grade for us.

Sorry, I wasn't a nurse at the time and the question was about that. I just had to share because I can't let those memories die.

I barely remember TV coverage. I know it seemed like a weird movie. But I will never, ever forget seeing this...

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQTiuEhT3o4[/YOUTUBE]

[EodwifeRN]

I was in nursing school. We were in the hospital on a clinical day when it happened. We just went from room to room watching it with our patients. I also happen to be married to a military man. So, i also have the the view of a wife reeling and wondering if her husband will be coming home. I have multiple cell phone messages that day as everyone my husband worked with including my husband trying to reach. 10 years later, I still have to wonder about my husband coming home as he is deployed every year.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

At the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, they play different kinds of music. However, after September 11, they played this. Makes me tear up every time I see it.

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

I was 19 and going to college a few hours away from NYC. About half the students were from NYC and everyone was freaking because they couldn't get hold of their families because the phones were jammed. My cousin was going to NYU and no one could get in touch with him. I found him on AIM (remember that?) so I was able to tell his mother he was ok. He witnessed the whole thing, but was ok.

One of my professors lost a friend who they never found. One of my classmates' fathers should have died along with everyone in his office but he stopped to buy donuts for his coworkers and was running late. It saved his life.

My current place of employment (where I went to work soon after dropping out of college) was under state survey at the time. I can only imagine.

Everyone was afraid at home because I was from Niagara Falls which provides a ton of hydroelectric power and some people thought it might be sabotaged.

I remember my friend's mother who was a nurse was mobilizing with her nursing friends to drive the 7 hours to NYC only to find out their services weren't needed.

It was so scary because no one knew where their families were and it seemed like you didn't know where terrorists were going to hit next.

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

Wow. All of your stories give me chills.

My little brother, who was five at the time, was talking to me about it yesterday, and I was completely disappointed that he didn't understand the gravity and importance of what happened ten years ago today. Then I realized that his generation and on probably won't, because they didn't live through it and weren't there. (Edit - of course he was alive, but I mean actually live the horror of watching it and understanding how terrible it was. I also told him that America has changed a lot since then, but he doesn't know it any differently. That also made me sad)

I heard Nickelodeon has a really great documentary out about 9/11 that is supposed to explain it to children. It just came out last week, I think. People say it is very appropriate and educational. Just in case any of you have younger children that don't understand.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

For the children in elementary school and younger, 9/11 for them is like Pearl Harbor, JFK, to me -- just something in the history books, not something you have personal memories of.

[cardiacmadeline, RN]

It was my first semester of nursing school. 9/11 was the first day my clinical group was to meet. I was home studying and had no idea what was going on. My husband came home because they had canceled his classes for the day and he told me what happened. We turned on the TV and watched until I had to go to school later because my classes were not canceled.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i was living and working on the west coast -- we lived right between a naval air station and an air force base, with a commuter "airline" (float planes) nearby. the float planes were on an hourly schedule. we were about a block away from a major highway, and were also used to hearing trucks and cars buzz by at all hours. at 0500, work called and offered dh the day off, which he happily accepted. we turned on the radio to npr and drifted off back to sleep listening to an account of tanks and shelling somewhere in the middle east. the phone rang again a bit later and woke us up . . . to an eerie silence. no military planes, no float planes and no one on the highway. someone on npr was screeching (how often does that happen?) about all the planes in the nation being grounded and my first thought was that the war in the middle east had gone nuclear.

dh's old roommate was on the phone urging us to "turn on the tv right now." i turned on the tv just in time to see the second plane hit the wtc. at that time, there was still one plane missing and believed hijacked, and we lived right in the middle of some really juicy targets . . .

the thing i remember most was the sense of unreality. everyone who could stayed home, glued to the television to catch any last tidbit of what was going on. when the newscasters had nothing new to report, they'd interview each other and speculate. there were so few facts available that morning. i remember two newscasters basically interviewing each other and speculating upon whether the plane striking the wtc was accidental . . . and in the background, you could see the second plane fly into the tower.

nothing was the television, the radio or in the newspaper for three solid days except 9/11. i followed several usenet newsgroups, and all of the conversation was about 9/11. people were rushing to the recruiting stations to enlist in the military, and for the first day, our hospital was trying to organize a group of nurses and doctors to go to nyc to help out. sadly, there were few survivors. two of our nurses had flown to scotland to get married and were scheduled to return on september 12. they didn't get back for several days. vacations were cancelled, business trips abandoned.

i also remember the rest of the world rushing to send us messages of support and condolence.

no anniversary has struck me as profoundly as this one.