Madhava Setty – On September 11, 2001 I was completing my last year of training as an Anesthesiologist at the University of Pennsylvania. That morning I, like many of us, sat transfixed for hours watching the continuous television coverage of the events that were unfolding in New York and Washington D.C. I was scheduled to work the night shift. When I arrived at the hospital most of the doctors and nurses who had worked during the day were still at their posts. The hospital had instituted an emergency plan of operation, expecting a possible mass casualty situation if and when hospitals in the New York City area became overwhelmed.

It turned out that not a single injured person was brought to Philadelphia for medical attention that night. Tragically, very few in the buildings managed to escape with their lives once the buildings fell. Nearly three thousand innocent people perished in the sudden and unexpected collapse of the Twin Towers. Continue reading →