‘Feels Like Yesterday': Poll Shows 9/11 ‘Still Raw' For Many New Yorkers

OCEANSIDE, NY — As America approaches the 25th anniversary of one of its saddest days, a new poll says the wound is still fresh. In a panel discussion Tuesday, officials from Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital revealed the findings of the hospital's 30th 'truth in medicine' poll, conducted among adults age 30 or older in New York City and on Long Island, which revealed that more than 75 percent of respondents aged 46 and older — 21 or older on Sept. 11, 2001 — are still feeling the impact of the terror attacks 25 years on. Almost two-thirds of the respondents 46 and older, Mount Sinai officials said, said they still have a clear memory of the tragic day in America's history. Many of the respondents said they still found the anniversary of Sept. 11 'triggering,' either emotionally or physically, officials said, while a quarter of the respondents reported trauma or medical health disorders stemming from the tragic day. The panel discussion Tuesday began with an invocation 'to remember, honor and find strength' was read by Dr. Aaron Glatt, Mount Sinai South Nassau's chair of the department of medicine. In his opening remarks, Glatt remembered 'with profound sorrow' not only the people who lost their lives on Sept. 11, but those who rushed into the wreckage on that day and lost their lives to it later. Joining Glatt on the panel were Tom Von Essen, the commissioner of the FDNY on 9/11, Mount Sinai South Nassau's interim president Josh Kugler, Mount Sinai South Nassau communications official Joe Calderone — who worked as a reporter at the New York Daily News on 9/11 — and 9/11 advocate Phil Alvarez, whose brother, Luis, was a detective in the NYPD that passed in 2016 from cancer that stemmed from his search and rescue work after 9/11. One by one, the panel recalled the day of Sept. 11: Kugler was working in an emergency room, ready to operate on survivors that mostly didn't make it to the hospital; Von Essen was in a firehouse, realizing quickly the magnitude of the day that was unfolding; Glatt was working at St. Vincent's hospital, and Calderone was in a newsroom preparing to cover an election that would be postponed after the attacks. Von Essen remembered that it started as 'A beautiful, beautiful, clear day.' Calderone also recalled his experience working on Sept. 12, 2001. The city was shut down, roads were closed, subways stopped running at 14th street. Calderone said he walked from 14th street down to the area around the World Trade Center. Calderone also recalled legions of first responders — not just firefighters and police, but laborers, medical professionals and concerned citizens — who had packed into the streets around ground zero to help out how they could. In the time since 9/11, authorities have identified thousands of diseases and conditions in those first responders, both mental and physical. There are 9/11 survivors in every state in the union, and studies conducted in the years after 9/11 found that over 10 percent of firefighters expowere suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. 'The psychological impact of that event was one that society had never experienced, and I think that psychological impact will be everlasting,' Kugler said. On Tuesday, Von Essen said he was confident that FDNY members who had responded to ground zero were getting the care they needed, but expressed concern for the care made available to a different subset of the first responder community: Volunteer firefighters, many of whom came from around the tri-state area to help FDNY in the days after 9/11. 'I truly believe we're doing everything we can for those in the FDNY,' the former commissioner said. 'It's the other firefighters, and people around the area that I would worry about. I know there's a lot of firefighters from around the area who came and helped, and I'm not sure they're getting everything they need.' For Alvarez, Tuesday morning was one marked by multiple efforts to remember 9/11: The advocate had been at New York City Hall early that morning as part of an announcement that the city had settled a lawsuit that would make thousands of city records public. Specifically, Alvarez said the suit would help people understand more clearly what was in the air around ground zero in the days, weeks and months after 9/11, and what the impacts of the air quality may have been on the first responders who spent their days and nights there. 'It was pretty obvious that the air quality around those 16 acres was pretty horrible, because the fires were still burning,' Von Essen said. 'I'm glad it's finally out, I wish the doctors and the medical community had seen those 25 years ago.' Perhaps most striking among the data revealed by this poll was a generational divide in the way people are still processing — or, in some cases, not processing — the tragedy of Sept. 11. Two-thirds of poll respondents who were under 21 years-old on Sept. 11, 2001 said 9/11 was either 'a vague memory' or not a memory at all. 57 percent of respondents between ages 30 and 45 said 9/11 was 'a distant event that does not affect their day-to-day lives.' 'That's one of the saddest statements from this poll,' Glatt said. With the last question of the discussion, Alvarez was asked what the best way was to remember the tragedy of 9/11. It's a cause Alvarez has spent no small time pursuing, both alongside and in memory of his brother, Luis. 'The best way, I feel, that you can honor the memory of what happened 25 years ago is to take care of each other. My brother, when he spoke before congress, he said it wasn't about religions, races, colors or politics,' Alvarez said. "We were all down there to show our unity, showing that we could stand up to terrorism, showing that we could help each other." 'Come Friday, we've got to start looking at each other as human beings, not about 'where do they go to worship, what side of the aisle that person's standing on.' We're all neighbors,' Alvarez added. 'It was always about service to others, so, come Friday, think about others. Think about those victims that never got to say goodbye to their families, think about everybody that's gotten sick over the past 25 years, but also think about your neighbors…9/11 affected all of us, in one way or another…but the best we can do is be there for each other.' Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.