Few Survivors Pulled From Rubble

This story was reported by Bobby Cuza, Herbert Lowe, Curtis L. Taylor and Margaret Ramirez | It was written by Taylor.

September 13, 2001

Hospital officials expressed grave concern late yesterday after around-the-clock efforts to extricate victims from the World Trade Center ruins produced few survivors.

Dr. Jeffrey Manko, emergency medicine program director at Bellevue Hospital Center, said that unfortunately, rescue workers spent most of the day removing body parts.

"You'd see the workers come down from the big heap and we'd get excited, but then all they needed was a body bag," said Manko.

He said that triage workers were mostly treating rescue workers for minor cuts, dust in their eyes and symptoms of smoke inhalation.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also expressed his frustration. He said that 50 people had been extricated and taken to local hospitals by 1:30 p.m.

"I wish they were bringing up more [survivors] faster," said Giuliani, who visited a volunteer hospitalized after inhaling fumes. "We're ready to take care of them."

Still, officials at Bellevue and St. Vincents Hospital and Medical Center, the two main trauma hospitals, said they were busy.

At St. Vincents, 449 patients were treated in the past two days, with an estimated 95 hospitalized. There were four fatalities. Among those treated yesterday were 36 rescue workers, including one suffering a severe eye injury caused by falling debris.

Bellevue officials said they had treated 260 patients since the attacks, including 81 firefighters and 38 police officers. The number of fatalities was not known.

At 12:15 p.m., an unidentified woman pulled from the rubble was taken to the hospital in critical but stable condition, suffering from injuries to her limbs and face, an official said.

A total of 363 patients were treated at city hospitals. An unknown number of patients were also treated at New Jersey hospitals, officials said.

Patients were treated mostly for smoke and respiratory injuries from dust, said Eduardo Hernandez, chairman of emergency medicine at St. Vincents.

Many rescue workers were treated for cuts on their hands incurred while trying to dig victims out of the rubble.

Relatives and friends of the missing continued to swarm emergency rooms and hospitals in the area, looking for loved ones.

A teary-eyed Beth Fitzsimmons, 24, of Yonkers, was one of the more than 700 family members to show up at St. Vincents. She held an 8-by-10 photo of her missing aunt, Angela Perez.

The 35-year-old mother of three children, ages 9, 10, and 13, worked at trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald on the 101st floor of Tower One.

"We haven't heard anything from her," Fitzsimmons said. "We have tried one or two of her co-workers but they haven't heard anything."

"I heard they pulled out people this morning," said Fitzsimmons, tears streaming down her face. "We are holding hope that maybe she is somewhere and she doesn't have any identification. It is going to be hard but we want to know."

Manko at Bellevue said the bodies were being taken to a nearby morgue site. A special Mayor's Office triage unit for missing persons was at 492 First Ave.

In addition to injuries, health care officials were grappling with how to treat the growing numbers who were needing counseling.

"The psychological impact of this takes time," said Dr. Luis Marcos, president of city Health and Hospitals Corp. "People go back and then they begin to have flashbacks and nightmares. They are unable to sleep. Depressed, scared. It's what we call post-traumatic stress disorder."