Video Update:  UAB Doctors Remember 9-11

Caught in a scary situation - these UAB medical personnel thought nothing of heading to ground zero and volunteering to help out.  It’s a day they’ll never forget.

“On September 11th, 2001, I was at a research meeting in Brooklyn, New York,“ said UAB ER Professor, Dr. Sarah Nafziger.

“It was a beautiful day that day,“ UAB ER Researcher Shannon Stephens said. “Right as we went outside, the towers were about a mile away.“

But that quickly changed for Nafziger and Stephens.

Stephens said, “So you could look up and clearly see the smoke and everything coming from the towers.“

Nafziger said, “Our instinct in medicine is try to help patients. Our first thought is ‘this is scary.‘ Our second thought was ‘let’s see if we can go help.‘“

Like the rest of people in the city that day, they were told to leave but with their medical training they both headed into the fray to do what they could.

“And then there were a lot of walking wounded who just had minor injuries,“ Nafziger said.  “They had foreign bodies in their eyes, and some dust inhalation, smoke inhalation.“

“So we got masks and gloves, and just helped take care of people as we could find them and helped dig through the rubble looking for people,“ Stephens said.

As both look back on this day, it’s something they’ll never forget but they also have an idea of who the real heroes were.

Stephens said, “The true heroes that day, were the police, fire and EMS guys, the paid guys, that were there before hand.  We were there simply to help out, lend a hand as best we could.“

Helping out - lending a hand - during a national crisis - one - many are unable to forget.

In her job, Emergency Preparedness, Dr. Nafziger uses her experiences from 9-11 to better prepare UAB Hospital.