October 4, 2001
FPs, AAFP help victims in wake of terrorist attacks
BY JODY McAULAY GLOOR
O ne minute, it was work as usual for family physicians in New York City and surrounding areas. The next minute, everything changed.
When the first airliner slammed into the World Trade Center Sept. 11, family physicians rushed to New York City hospitals, waiting to treat victims of the terrorist attacks. Some walked or ran to the disaster sites, then helped emergency response teams assess the injured crawling from the smoke and debris.
Academy member Neil Calman, M.D., president and co-founder of The Institute for Urban Family Health in New York City, was working just one mile away from "ground zero" at the twin towers when disaster struck.
"We were in touch immediately with all the emergency authorities," Calman said. "At that time, expectations were very high that there would be thousands of injuries. Unfortunately, that was not the case. By late Tuesday night, all the emergency care was being handled by nearby hospitals."
Just across the river, at St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken, N.J., family physician Abbie Jacobs, M.D., watched the 110-story buildings burn and collapse. Jacobs is director of the family practice residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The ensuing "mass exodus" from the city brought 158 victims to Hoboken's command central post.
"They came in on their own, kind of like the 'walking wounded,'" she said. "We had people who walked six miles to Queens to catch the ferry to get here. One woman with an Achilles tendon rupture had walked for miles. It was almost as if she wasn't aware of the injury."
One young woman who watched the terror unfold on her TV told how her husband called her from the south tower after the north building was struck. "Then that building was struck, and now he is presumed dead," Jacobs said. "She, like many others who have come in since, needs psychological help."
Gina Basello, D.O., a chief resident in the family practice program at Mount Sinai at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, headed to ground zero early Sept. 12 with a relief team and a mobile clinic to treat rescue workers. "One of the firefighters came in with minor chemical burns on his legs," she said. "Obviously, they had been irritated by sweat and friction because he just wouldn't stop working to take care of himself. We treated his legs, irrigated his eyes and wrapped him in a blanket. He didn't stay long."
Soon after news of the attacks reached the AAFP's national headquarters, staff established a special hotline and e-mail address for members wanting to volunteer for rescue and relief efforts. During the next two days, more than 300 Academy members responded to the call. Several constituent chapters posted volunteer hotline numbers on their Web sites as well.
By Wednesday, Academy leaders turned their attention to the more serious emerging need -- counseling -- for victims, their families and friends, rescue workers and attending physicians, and all those who witnessed the attacks on-site or on TV.
Calman said he already was counseling physicians and residents at the institute, because they were "completely frustrated that their medical skills were of little or no help at that point." He e-mailed staff and residents, reminding them that the "regular" work they did still was very important.
Even Basello admitted the experience hit her hard. The site, she said, was "surreal." And pep talks from her program director didn't really help, she added, because a few days later "the magnitude of the tragedy finally hit me, and I couldn't even get out of bed. I realized I couldn't do all that much to help, and I really wanted to."
The entire experience, Calman said, reminded him of the "incredibly critical role" family physicians have when tragedy strikes. "We can do it all. We can assess emergency needs. We can provide anesthesia. We can irrigate eyes, and we can treat burns and lacerations," he said. "And now we can counsel people."
On Thursday, Sept. 13, the Academy e-mailed a special bulletin to members and a letter to chapter executives, alerting them that many patients and their families will need help coping with the "aftereffects of these traumatic events."
The Academy offered a list of resources, including clinical materials about diagnosing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder and materials to use when talking with patients of all ages, family members and colleagues. The list is posted online at http://www.aafp.org/resources/. *
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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