“For generations, we cooperated to live in this small space. Now cooperation has helped us keep living.”
One of my favorite vacations ever was to New York City. I was curious about it but not sure I wanted to go there. But when my son’s work took him there for a year, I decided it was time to visit him and the city. And I am so glad I went. It was magical.
good food, great company, grand city
Safest big city: After its horrors, New York City is (for now) a coronavirus success story
Deaths are rare now. Some days there are none, as the hospital ICUs scale down. And a network of scaled-up clinics and hospitals administer tens of thousands of daily tests,… Credit the collective discipline of staying apart and wearing masks, and leadership decisions holding off on opening bars and indoor dining. For generations, we cooperated to live in this small space. Now cooperation has helped us keep living.
New York Daily News
“A Natural Woman “
I reviewed Carole King’s memoir, A Natural Woman. Carole was born in Manhattan, attended school in New York City, and started her musical career there. A musical about her life, Beautiful, plays on Broadway. (I saw Beautiful in Tulsa.)
Another memoir, Working Stiff, happened in New York City. Dr. Judy Melinek and her husband T.J. Mitchell chronicled her work as a medical examiner with the NYC Medical Examiner’s office following the Trade Center attacks on 9/11.
New York City by night from the Empire State Building
I read this book in which Dr. Elizabeth Ford reviewed her career as a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital, where she cared for mentally ill patients in the criminal justice system of New York City.
When the hospital flooded and lost power during Hurricane Sandy she and the dedicated staff fought to get permission to evacuate the prisoner patients who languished for days in a ward without running water or hot food.
Dr. Danielle Ofri has a special interest in and writes about the patient- physician relationship . She is an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and writes for The New York Times.
She has written several books; I reviewed this one.
Even though the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States happened long ago, there are still lessons to remember and to learn. This post highlights some of the literature that preserves that knowledge.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 prompted a profuse body of literature, including one by a woman physician forensic pathologist trainee.
The author, Judy Melinek, M.D., wrote this account of her training as a forensic pathologist, a physician specialist who investigates sudden, unexpected or violent deaths. Her husband, T.J. Mitchell co-authored.
When she applied for a position in New York City at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), Dr. Judy Melinek never imagined that decision would plunge her into the nightmare of September 11, 2001. She was at the ME office that day when the Twin Towers were attacked and fell, killing thousands of people.
The main job of a medical examiner is to investigate death by examining a corpse- an autopsy. They look for evidence of the cause of death, whether due to disease or trauma, and time of death, recent or remote. They hunt for signs that the death was self or other inflicted. Sometimes they need to establish the identity of the corpse. Such was the case after September 11.
She and the other staff collaborated with the team of investigators who worked night and day identifying the remains of victims, a task she vividly describes in the book. This was basically their only job since the cause of death was for the most part irrelevant, and impossible to determine.
Sometimes they had only a small body part, as little as a finger, to extract DNA to identity a victim. Such identification was critical to bring closure to the families who lost loved ones, people who left for work that day, and never came home.
DNA fingerprinting is a chemical test that shows the genetic makeup of a person or other living things. It’s used as evidence in courts, to identify bodies, track down blood relatives, and to look for cures for disease.
WebMD.com
The structure of DNA and genetic information. from U.S. Government Works
Dr. Melinek describes not only the science of what she was doing, but also the emotion behind it; how she and the other medical examiners and staff felt about their work. She describes how it affected her relationship with her husband and young son, the problem of explaining to him what she was seeing and experiencing on a daily basis. She didn’t have the heart to tell him how many trailers full of partial bodies there were, after he saw just one and was shocked.
She also discusses other cases she worked on. As a forensic pathologist, Dr. Melinek understands why and how people die, and therefore also knows how people can avoid dying unexpectedly. Pathologists tend to be blunt, straightforward and to the point, as when she writes,
“So don’t jaywalk.
Wear your seat belt when you drive.
Better yet, stay out of your car and get some exercise.
Watch your weight.
If you’re a smoker, stop right now. If your aren’t, don’t start.
Guns put holes in people. Drugs are bad.
You know that yellow line on the subway platform? It’s there for a reason.
Staying alive, as it turns out, is mostly common sense.”
Working Stiffmoves at a quick pace, in a conversational style. When she uses medical jargon, she explains it in simple terms. She describes the cases she investigated in detail so those with weak stomachs (no pun) may want to skip this read.
Having experienced her father’s unexpected death when she was 13 years old, she was no stranger to it, and she learned more from the 262 autopsies she did during her training. As she says in this engaging memoir,
“To confront death every day, to see it for yourself, you have to love the living.”
“In City of Dust, Anthony DePalma offers the first full accounting of one of the gravest environmental catastrophes in United States history.
The destruction on 9/11 of two of the world’s largest buildings unleashed a vortex of dust and ash that blotted out the sun and has distorted science, medicine and public policy ever since. The likely dangers of 9/11’s massive dust cloud were evident from the beginning, yet thousands chose not to see. Why? As the sickening results of exposure became evident, many still refused to recognize them. Why? The consequences are still being tallied in the wasted bodies and disrupted lives of thousands who gave their all when the need was greatest, but whose demands for justice have been consumed by years of politics and courtroom maneuvers.
Separating reality from myth – and doing so with exceptional literary style and grace, DePalma covered Ground Zero for The New York Times for four years. DePalma introduces heroic firefighters, dedicated doctors and scientists, obsessive city officials, partisan politicians, aggressive lawyers, and compassionate judges and reveals the individual decisions that destroyed public trust, and the desperate attempts made to rebuild it.
The dust that was the World Trade Center has changed everything it touched. This is the story of that dust, the 9/11 disaster after the disaster, and what it tells us about ourselves and our future.”
(Amazon review)
a New York City police officer and his horse represent the city proudly
“Written in conjunction with the documentary Rebirth, a full decade in the making, an uplifting look at the lives of nine individuals whose lives were forever changed by the largest tragedy our nation has ever faced.
In Project Rebirth, a psychologist and a journalist examine the lives of nine people who were directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001. Written concurrently with the filming of the documentary, it is uniquely positioned to tackle the questions raised about how people react in the face of crippling grief, how you maintain hope for a future when your life as you knew it is destroyed, and the amazing ability of humans to focus on the positive aspects of day-to-day living in the face of tragedy.”
(Amazon review)
honoring the brave FDNY firefighters who rescued survivors and those who lost their lives doing so
former National Coordinator of Disaster Volunteers for the American Red Cross
“You never know when your life is going to change.
My red business suit was almost buttoned, and I was rehearsing my presentation for the Milford, Connecticut Red Cross board of directors, even though my mind kept wandering to my wedding just nine days earlier in Walt Disney World. An urgent call from my new husband to come to the television interrupted my wedding day dreams.
As soon as I saw the images of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, I knew that my plans for the day – maybe even my life – had changed.” (excerpt from article)
“What do Ossler’s insights reveal about finding meaning and purpose in the thick of chaos and personal tragedy?
Chaplain Ossler chronicles the best of humanity—acts of courage and goodness in the midst of unimaginable devastation. As terrorist attacks continue to assault humanity, Triumph Over Terror reveals how your spirit can triumph over terror’s reign, and how you can help others suffering from trauma and loss.”(Amazon review)
(This blog post contains several affiliate links, a commission is paid if used to make a purchase. Thank you.)
One World Trade Center, photo taken 8/16/2013 by Dr. Aletha
exploring the HEART of health in history
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