Abstract
This report describes selected aspects of the response by Bellevue Hospital Center to the World Trade Center attack of 11 September 2001. The hospital is 2.5 miles (4 km) from the site of the attack. These first-hand observations and this analysis may aid in future preparations. Key issues described relate to communication, organization, injuries treated, staffing, and logistics.
Highlights
Bellevue Hospital Center is a large, metropolitan, Level I trauma, tertiary care teaching hospital 2.5 miles (4 km) from the World Trade Center
We describe and retrospectively analyze our actions in the hope that it will lead to improved response to future disasters
Practice and drills may facilitate disaster response but most of our staff had not participated in any prior to the World Trade Center attack
Summary
The attack occurred in the morning of a normal working day and so the hospital was fully staffed. The capacity of emergency generators is unable to meet the demands of large equipment, such as computed tomography scanners, as happened at New York Downtown Hospital within hours of the attack It was not required in this case, clearly someone should be assigned to control and conserve these resources. Anyone potentially needing airway management or sedation was assigned a senior anesthesiology resident or intensive care unit fellow, who would stay with that patient throughout his/her workup and into the operating room or intensive care unit if necessary This technique for managing staff limited the crowd at the bedside while ensuring that an adequate supply of experts were at hand. Over the 10 hours, a further 80 patients were received with a similar distribution of injury and severity
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