Hi Lisa

As a former flight attendant from Eastern Airlines, and flew for them from 1973-1991. I was based in ATL and later DCA where after EA folded, I went back to RN school to get my BSN in 1993. I later moved to NYC and worked at a local hospital in Manhatten. Little did I know what was about to happen which changed my life.

I work in the ER Department as a Level II RN Trauma Nurse and 9/11 will forever be in my mind. When the planes collided with the trade towers, our ER department was total chaos with people coming in with cuts, bruises, broken glass in their faces, and mostly shock. WE had a seperate room ready for the passengers in case there were survivors but to our horror we were told no survivors survived the impact. For the most part, before the second building collapsed, we were getting in policemen, firemen, EMT"S/ Paramedics with injuries that we must have worked 36 hours straight helping injured people. Sadly, our medical director told us there were no more survivors after the second building collapsed and to move on to our patients and keep working. Working in ER you had to be calm at all times. Thank god I got good emergency training from EA that I used that day. When a fellow employee was overwhelmed, she came up to me and asked" How can you stay so calm with so many injured people around? Doesn't this bother you? " I replied to her" NOt at all. I was a flight attendant for a major airlne and I was taught to remain calm at all times no matter how bad the situation is." and returned to my work. Although it was overhwhelming and you had to step away for awhile to get away from the injuries, I just broke down and cried and wondered why would anyone want to take people's life's in such a horrible manner?

It was a long shift for me, and the smell of jet fule in the air was horrible. You could see the smoke, fire, and all the police vehicles roping off certain areas to keep the on lookers away from the scene at the World Trade Center it was overwhelming. Most of us RN's on that day were just tired,over worked, but never the less, we had a job to do. THe next morning, four of us RN's were assinged at Ground Zero to go help look for survivors and set up a mini triage center in case we had any survivors. The ground crew who worked many long hours were only able to find three policemen who were found alive after many hours of being trapped under rubble that I could not beleive that there were no more survivors. There were a few more survivors, but for the most part, I could'nt help but think of all the people in those buildings who died so fast.

Being an RN and former flight attendant taught me many things. Using some of my emergency skills helped me survive those long hours of working and truth be told? I love my job as an RN. Being a f/a at that time in the 1970's was rewarding as well. You learn alot from your training. After five years from 9/11, I still work as an RN, and I made many friends that day in the ER from helping them. To me and my mind? ALL the flight crews who lost their lives on that day are my heros as well as the paramedics, policemen, firemen and whoever else helped out on that day that lost their life. I'm proud to be an RN and proud to be in a great profession. So many memories of being a flight attendant!! To me, life is good. Flight attendants are heros as far as I'm concerned!!!