Local Doctor Witnesses The Nightmare Of ‘Ground Zero’

By Melissa Grossman

Newtown resident Dr Daniel E. Wollman, 36, volunteered last Thursday to spend a day at what has come to be known as “Ground Zero” in New York City – the pile of concrete, steel, and glass that was formerly the World Trade Center towers.

Dr Wollman works in the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan as an internist.  After the attack, Mount Sinai Hospital personnel were asked to stay in order to prepare for the arrival of any victims.  “But no victims showed up,” he said. 

Dr Wollman decided to head for Ground Zero on Thursday to help. He packed things he thought he might need: a respirator, goggles, work clothes, and gloves. 

Dr Wollman’s wife, Debby, said she was concerned for her husband. The Wollmans have two daughters, Joanna, 7 and Caroline, 5.

“It crossed my mind that he could be harmed or even worse, and I was even thinking how I would tell the children if something were to happen to him,” Mrs Wollman said.

Dr Wollman said, “I felt guilty leaving my family here. But I felt that I could volunteer and not compromise my safety to a tremendous degree. I didn’t feel imminent danger of a building collapsing on me, but I knew there were risks going down. Health risks of being in the area. But I felt it was a reasonable risk to take.”

When he arrived in the area, Dr Wollman was directed to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where he registered as a volunteer physician. He was then sent to a bus, where he remained for four hours.

“I was frustrated,” he said. After he got out of the bus, he saw “a man driving an SUV that had a cardboard sign saying, ‘MDs and RNs: I will take you to the volunteer Centers.’ A bunch of us got in and we were dropped off a block away from where the World Trade Center Building number 7 had collapsed.” 

Disbelief turned to sadness and progressed toward shock, and Dr Wollman found himself wishing “that this was just a bad dream.”  He realized that his reaction was similar to those who experience post traumatic stress disorder. Since then his days have been interrupted by flashbacks.

“You forget what happened and then all of a sudden, you have a flashback again,” he said.

“As we got into lower Manhattan, I noticed the air was becoming more thick with the odor of burning plastic and burning insulation. My throat became scratchy,” said Dr Wollman, who also said he saw people who worked downtown, just “standing on the street. And children on the playground not knowing what to do.”

As he got closer, he saw more emergency workers and fewer civilians. 

Then he saw a sign warning of high asbestos levels. That was when he put on his mask, and he knew then that “this was pretty serious.” Dr Wollman said that wearing the mask was like breathing out of a straw.  “It was hot.”

The physician was prepared not to find survivors.  He felt his job would be to tend to the rescue workers.

“My expectation was to be available in the event there were survivors, but mostly I knew I would be going down to help the workers being exposed to hazardous situations,” he said.

The triage center was located in Stuyvesant High School, near the Westside Highway. The center was filled with members of the Salvation Army, emergency workers, firefighters, policemen, and military.  “Lots of military,” Dr Wollman said.

There was a steady flow of donated medical supplies, bottled water and food at the center.

“Surprisingly there were very few injuries. But we had things to do,” Dr Wollman said. The volunteers treated patients and stacked supplies. They rested when they could.

“When we are active doing things, you forget what is going on around you. It’s goal driven. Everyone was united together, forgetting any differences,” he added.

The triage center was a volunteer effort, with doctors coming from many hospitals. “I was impressed that it developed into a fully functioning remote emergency room. We had all the supplies that we needed,” Dr Wollman said.

He said there were eight beds on his floor. Each bed was assigned a doctor and two nurses. The floor was divided into several areas, with each section devoted to a different medical condition – an eye unit, a respiratory unit, and an orthopedic unit.

“We were all set to take care of critical injuries as well, such as a heart attack, God forbid,” Dr Wollman said

Most of the treatments involved washing out eyes, attending to asthma attacks, and aiding volunteer firemen and workers who came in cold and wet.

While Thursday night’s chilly rain may have encumbered the rescue workers, Dr Wollman believed it improved the air quality. “The time I didn’t have my mask on, I noticed there was less of the dusty odor in the air,” he said.

The Newtown resident reflected that last week’s events produced “a disaster of immense proportion.” He felt that the world has changed.

“The opportunity for progress toward worldwide peace has taken a drastically different course,” he said. He returned to duty at Mount Sinai Hospital Friday morning.