Michael Jones, head of the department of emergency medicine at Montefiore Einstein Medical Center in New York, told RTVI how the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, became for him confirmation of the correctness of his chosen profession. As a student, he found himself on an ambulance shift that day, helping to see thousands of patients in ash-covered hospitals in the city center.
The victims of the terrorist attacks in New York against the twin towers of the International Trade Center on September 11, 2001, were 2,753 people. Another 224 people were killed at the Pentagon in Virginia, where another hijacked plane crashed, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a fourth plane crashed.
As Jones said, studying at a medical school in those years was not easy for him, and he volunteered for an ambulance in New York to practically understand whether he wanted to pursue a career in medicine. He was on shift on the day of the terrorist attacks.
“I first headed to our base in the Central Park area, and then straight to the very center of the city. Just think – I became a volunteer to figure out if I wanted to practice medicine all my life, and on that morning of September 11, the answer was given to me,” the doctor emphasized.
The doctor noted that he and his colleagues treated waves of thousands of patients, first in hospitals, and then he was sent to the South Ferry Ferry Terminal, where an emergency center was set up to help and distribute victims.
“As the day progressed, it gradually became clear that the next wave of casualties that we had been expecting was not going to happen,” Jones said.
The doctor remembered one patient forever – a policeman covered in soot and debris was taken to the terminal. The man had one of his limbs injured, was having difficulty breathing and could not find his partner, Jones said.
“I then realized that at that time I did not have any special training or the necessary equipment. I basically just sat and talked to him. It’s amazing that ten years later I was again on a shift in the ambulance and we ended up on the same call – we immediately recognized each other. He said that he then spent a week in the hospital, recovered and continued to work as a police officer,” Jones shared the story.
From famous TV series to pediatrician
The head of the center for pediatric dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, Lisa Arkin, also said in an interview with RTVI that the terrorist attacks in New York changed her life forever. In those days, she volunteered at a children's hospital in the evenings, and her day job was editing HBO series such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
“I loved my job of creating stories, it fed my soul, but it also felt very isolating. So working in the evenings helped me feel like I was doing something more tangible. And 9/11 helped crystallize the idea that I wanted to spend my life helping people in a more meaningful way,” Arkin said.
As she said, on the day of the terrorist attack she was tasked with uniting separated families, but the situation became a “silent trauma” for her forever, since almost no one was able to help then.
“I got to hear all these stories about the last calls. I remember a list of 200 police officers, none of whom could be found,” the doctor noted.
Arkin added that the feeling of unity in New York that followed the tragedy helped her overcome her fears and decide on a radical career change – she went to study to become a doctor without any prior training.
“I went to a graduate program to gain knowledge in the sciences that I didn’t study in my college, and then to medical school. All this was charged with a newfound sense of purpose,” said the doctor, who now helps children with skin diseases.
