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| Sue Eckert, RN Chief Nursing Executive |
I remember we were unbelievably busy. We prepared the hospital to receive mass casualties. We focused on finishing OR cases and rescheduling others to hold the ORs open and ready for trauma. I remember discharging hundreds of patients and preparing areas to be used as alternate ICUs. And then, the sadness. We were ready to treat hundreds of victims. We did receive a number of burn victims. But we slowly came to realize, along with the rest of the country, that many at the Pentagon had not survived.
Yet in all these vivid memories, the thing that most stands out is not the activity but the people. Nurses, doctors, patient care technicians, pharmacists, protective services, facilities and environmental services personnel… all came pouring into the hospital ready to respond. Every single person in the building, from associates and medical staff to patients and visitors, worked together in an unbelievable spirit of cooperation.
I had grown up with first responders. My father was a police officer in Boston. My mother was a nurse. So, I knew first-hand how professionals react when there is an emergency. But now, 12 years later, I still am amazed and humbled by how a huge organization like this can put everything aside in a crisis and focus on our mission. Not just focus, but care.
So today, while the country honors those first responders to the horrific sites of 9/11 and the thousands so tragically killed, I will also honor what everyone here does, every day. We are very good at what we do, and sometimes in the day to day routine it is easy to forget that we do all this because of how much we care.
Today, I remember.
Sue Eckert, RN
Chief Nursing Executive
