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That sentiment was echoed by one of Weatherby’s nursing students. “She had gone down to the blast site on the day that it happened since she was also an EMT and wanted to help,” Weatherby says. “They had set up triage stations with cots and IVs and were ready to take care of the bombing victims. Eventually, the word came that there were no more patients — they had rescued everyone they could find. She told me, ‘I remember looking at those cots with their IVs, hanging useless now, and thinking that they represented people I could no longer help.’ She was really moved by it, and I was moved by her reaction.”

Not all the victims were working in the building at the time of the explosion. Rebecca Needham Anderson, LPN, appalled by the carnage she saw on TV, rushed down to the bombing site to render aid. She had already helped several people out of the rubble when she was killed by a falling chunk of debris. A U.S. Department of Education nursing scholarship now bears her name.

“To know that she didn’t have to be there, but stepped in to help even though it cost her her life, makes me very proud to be a nurse,” Weatherby says.

Overcoming the evil

Incredibly, just a day after the Murrah explosion, a bomb threat was called in to Children’s Hospital. “I think that was even more frightening than the bombing itself,” Flowers says. “They wanted to evacuate our building, but we had 18 critical care patients. Not just bombing victims, but others, as well.”

Faced with the prospect of abandoning their patients, the nurses stood firm and wouldn’t leave; neither would Weatherby’s nursing students. “We had a faculty member over there [at Children’s Hospital] who told the students, ‘I need you to get out right now because there’s been a bomb threat,’” Weatherby says. “She told me later she was so proud of the students. One of them looked at her for a moment and then asked, ‘But who’ll take care of the babies?’”

Fortunately, there was no bomb, and all the patients brought to the Children’s Hospital survived. In the wake of the blast, critical incident management teams were brought in to counsel hospital employees, disaster plans were amended, and changes were made to many of the city’s other buildings. Around some, especially government installations, there are now barricades to keep vehicles a safe distance away. And the city now takes disaster preparedness very seriously.

Could any good possibly come out of such a disaster? Fulton recalls how proud she was of the hospital staff, which came together like never before to help the victims. Burkle was heartened to learn just how much the Saint Anthony team was capable of when tested by a disaster of such magnitude. And Weatherby was amazed at the reaction of the community, which quickly banded together in an unprecedented show of support.

“Right after it happened, the reaction was: ‘How can evil crop up like this? Look how destructive people can be and what a horrible situation they can create,’” Weatherby says. “And yet almost immediately, people started coming in and asking us what they could do to help. Overwhelmingly then, there were all sorts of positive things to overcome the evil. That showed that there were far more good people out there than the person who caused all the trouble.”

After enduring that horrible day, many nurses feel fundamentally changed by the experience. “It just makes you want to hug your kids a little more often,” Ray says. “You become even more aware of how lucky you are to have them.”

“I think that anything that blindsides you and is catastrophic changes your perception,” Flowers adds. “It warps you somewhat, and I think makes you better — helps you put your priorities in the right place forever and ever.”

Mark Cantrell is a freelance writer.