Remembering 9/11: Reflections on Tragedy and Resilience

On September 11, 2001, Steve Vince, a nurse at what is now NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, was teaching a life-support class across the street from the hospital when he heard a loud noise. Steve didn’t think much of the sound, but one of the nurses in the class was concerned, so he walked across the rooftop terrace to see what was happening. “I looked over on Beekman Street and I saw the fire company jumping into the truck,” he remembers. “I scanned the neighborhood, but I couldn’t see anything.”

Not long after Steve returned to resume the class, the phone rang. “The person told me, ‘A plane has struck the World Trade Center. Please disband and please send all employees back to the hospital,’” he says.

Steve sprang into action. He estimates he and his colleagues went on to care for nearly 400 patients in a make-shift clinical space the team set up in the cafeteria. In the days that followed, he tried to do what he could for his neighbors in Lower Manhattan too — whether it was giving his mask to a woman walking her dog or bringing food and medication to people stranded in their high-rise buildings.

On that day and in the aftermath, staff across NewYork-Presbyterian came to the aid of New Yorkers — from our heroic paramedics and EMTs, who rushed to the scene; to the entire staff at the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, who treated the most critically injured; to nurses like Steve, who served patients and the community.

Today, 23 years later, Steve can still recall every detail from those days. “I can remember where I was, what I was wearing, what I did, and I can remember that in all the days after,” he says. “I feel it’s important to always remember what happened, and important to share and give an accurate account so that no one forgets what happened that day.”