A first hand look inside Ground Zero

By Celeste O'Dell, MA, RN,
March 18, 2002

How did you happen to go to Ground Zero in September?

On Sept. 19, I was at West Point reviewing the OR technologist program at Keller Army Community Hospital. Some of the students in my program at Fort Sam Houston go on to Keller for phase 2 of their training. Sgt. 1st Class Clarice Gross, the senior surgical technologist of the perioperative services, introduced me to a Keller physician who had been to Ground Zero several times.

He said, "You have to go." According to him, that was the only way I could really understand what had happened Sept. 11 and explain the situation to my colleagues at the Academy of Health Sciences.

I was skeptical, thinking that I had seen my share of disasters during my 30 years in emergency rooms and ORs, but I really wasn't prepared for what I saw.

How was the visit arranged and what was your involvement?

My visit [Sept. 21] was completely unofficial. Sgt. 1st Class Gross went with me to Manhattan, where we stopped first at a checkpoint in the emergency operations center.

From there, we went to the triage area in 3 World Finance Center, a building directly across the street from the site where the North Tower stood.
The director of security at 3 WFC took me up to the 51st floor and out on the roof, so I could get a full view.

He urged me to make sure my students knew what the devastation was like because they might have to face a situation like this someday. He said, "Make sure they realize how absolutely vital it is that they learn their job and learn it well."

What was your first impression?

I was overwhelmed. The piles of rubble were literally four stories high, even though disaster crews had already taken out 70 tons of debris. It looked to me as if they hadn't even started.

The pillars of smoke billowing out made the site look like a volcano. The temperatures had reached 2,000 degrees when the buildings burned and the heat hadn't dissipated completely.

At ground level, it had seemed that there was a heavy fog, but from the roof, I could see that the day was crystal clear.
I still remember the smell, halfway between a fireplace and a city dump, with an underlying putrid odor that's hard to describe.

Describe one incident that stood out for you.

I saw a dozen or so workers sitting lined up on a concrete barrier eating lunch. They weren't saying a word, just looking at nothing.
I haven't been in combat, but I recognized the "thousand-yard stare" that soldiers talk about, a symptom of being overwhelmed.

I talked to one fireman who had been working 16-hour days. He said, "We're lucky if we get four hours of sleep a night, but I think it's a good thing right now. I don't have to think about anything but doing my job."

Later, I spoke with an Army Reserve psychiatrist on one of the roving stress teams on duty around-the-clock. He said the incidence of post-traumatic stress syndrome in disaster workers would be immense.

The physician from Keller who urged me to come told me to wear my uniform because the workers appreciated it.
Even firefighters and police saluted, rather than shaking hands. One told me that having visitors let them know that people hadn't forgotten them.

What conclusions did you draw from your visit?

Sometimes, the preparations we make for disasters seem far removed from everyday experience. What I saw gave me a new respect for the urgency and importance of disaster training. It also reinforced for me how important our Army Reservists and National Guard are. They take part in my program along with regular Army personnel.

I saw how necessary we all are to the team. Reservist and National Guard training needs to be every bit as rigorous as training for the regular Army.

At what point in your nursing career did you decide to join the Army?

In a way, the civilian sector forced me into the military.
I did my senior clinical rotation in the nursing program at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, in the OR.

I loved it and knew I'd found my niche. But in 1985, there were no OR training programs available. You had to wait for a position to open in an OR, and that didn't happen often.
I joined the Army to get into perioperative nursing.

When you compare notes with your wife, who is a civilian nurse, are there significant differences in your experiences?

Actually, my wife and I met in nursing school and joined the Army together. I stayed and she left after four years. She's a newborn-nursery nurse and a clinician. The Army's emphasis on upward mobility into managerial or administrative positions didn't suit her. She didn't want to leave the nursery. That's a drawback in the Army. They don't allow clinicians to stay clinicians.

For me, that upward mobility was a positive thing. I've gotten to do so many things I wouldn't have in the civilian sector. For instance, we spent four years in Germany as TOADs (Tourists on Active Duty) and traveled all over Europe. We lived, talked and volksmarched with our neighbors, getting to know them in a way that isn't possible in a two-week vacation.

And the Army paid all the expenses for my master's program in nursing education at UNC. My career since has been really rewarding. This summer, I'm going to take a position as director of perioperative nursing services at Fort Campbell, Ky. So, the Army was great for me.

Would you recommend Army nursing to others?

I'd definitely recommend that they try the military for four years.
At the end of that time, they would know whether the Army meets their career needs.
And whatever their decision, the four years is great preparation, either for the Army or civilian nursing.