Newsletter article featuring NYU engineering interview, Sept 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Section Chief within the ICS Organization established. Soon after 9:00 AM, due to the smoke from the fire, we turned off all of the Hospital's HVAC and air conditioning units and closed all outside air dampers, to prevent the systems from drawing smoke from outside and contaminating the hospital. In addition, staff were requested to shut windows. Fortunately, the outside air temperature was not too warm, otherwise the hospital would have become very uncomfortable.

By the time that the 2nd Tower was hit, the hospital was on high alert and had already begun to receive patients suffering from serious burns, crush injuries, and smoke inhalation. At approximately 10:00 AM, when the first tower fell, the dust just rolled through the streets towards the hospital, chasing hundreds of people. Luckily, we had previously shutdown our HVAC systems and windows, which prevented the Hospital from becoming infiltrated with dust.

After the first tower fell, everything on the outside of the building was covered with about 2" of cement dust, including hundreds of people that entered our lobby seeking refuge. Hospital staff were assigned in the lobbies to tend to the 450-500 people from lower Manhattan seeking refuge. We washed out their eyes, gave them water and dust masks, organized them into groups based on where they were headed (Brooklyn, Queens, Uptown), and appointed separate Group Leaders to walk each group out to safety.

During the panic that ensured and running for safety, a mother and son were separated, as well as a Downs syndrome patient from his parents. Hospital staff were assigned to comfort both until parents were later located.

We immediately set up portable decontamination showers outside our ambulance bays to hose off those victims covered in dust. Our hose bibs were designed with a thermostatic mixing valve for the water, and we also had medical gases built into that location, in case we needed medical air for staff in decontamination suits (we did not).

For those victims that we did triage, we set up four color-coded levels: Green for ambulatory, Yellow for seriously injured, Red for life-threatening injuries, and Black for deceased. We set up the cafeteria for the Yellow level of triage, and the main ED for the Red level of triage. We also used our Outpatient Clinic and Faculty Practice areas to provide emergency medical care for those ambulatory victims.

During the first morning, from roughly 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, we triaged approximately 320 victims. Existing, stable patients were transferred to NYU Hospital Center, to make room for the new patients. Those requiring orthopedic surgery were transferred to Hospital for Joint Disease, and three serious bum victims were transferred to the New York-Cornell Burn Center.

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