GOSHEN – In a little more than three months the nation will mark the 25th anniversary of the worst attack on U.S. soil – the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Dr. Gordon Huie, a retired orthopedic surgeon and former combat medic with the U.S. Army, knows this tragedy all too well and shared his story from that fateful day with guests Tuesday night as part of Orange County’s Guest Speaker Series at its Emergency Services Center in Goshen.
Huie grew up in New York City’s section of Chinatown. According to him, when the stock market would close at 4 p.m. – and the hustle and bustle of traders and brokers would clear – the empty streets of the city’s financial district now belonged to him and his friends. It was their playground and is one of the reasons Huie has always had a love of the city and his country. On that bright, sunny day nearly 25 years ago, Huie was on his way to New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital (formerly known as Beekman Hospital). The plan was to interview patients for research he was conducting on various perspectives on a disease entity. Of course, that all changed when he saw both towers of the World Trade Center on fire. He would a short time later be one of many who was caught in the clouds of soot and debris when both towers collapsed.
When things cleared and he could see in front of him, he made his way to the hospital and alerted staff of who he was, the background he had, and that he could be utilized any way they wanted. His goal was to simply help as many people as possible and so he was allowed a fourth-floor conference room that became a makeshift trauma ward. Working with the bare minimum of equipment, he would see one patient at a time. By noon, Huie realized no more patients were being sent up to see him. He thought it was because they were being diverted to other area hospitals. Turns out, it was because there weren’t any more survivors. Later that night, his father took a chance and was able to reach him on an old landline telephone at a church his son would attend within walking distance of the towers. His father relayed the devastating news that Huie’s sister, Susan, had died in the attacks. She was an employee for Compaq Computers which had offices inside one of the towers.
“My sister wouldn’t want to be known as a corporate person. To me, I’m biased. I think she’s the world’s greatest Sunday school teacher,” Huie said. “She taught for 17 years and loved teaching Sunday school. So, if you have to know someone from the World Trade Center, and if you never met anyone, now you know Susan.”
Huie is the only known 9/11 “triple” – himself a survivor of the World Trade Center attacks, his work as a first responder, and the pain of losing a family member in the devastation. He speaks regularly to groups and serves as a docent at the National September 11th Memorial Museum in Manhattan. As expected, Huie said there’s a gamut of emotions tied to 9/11. While colleges and universities have approached him about speaking and sharing his personal story, it’s certainly has helped him find an outlet to decompress. Though, the pain will always be there.
“One of the activities for my daughter at the time was to make an American flag. And we were in a Barnes and Noble, around all these parents and I didn’t know what to say,” Huie said. “I wanted to scream and say I just came from that mess. My sister just died, but I couldn’t tell anyone. I kept that in me for the longest time and it just ate me up.”
Huie was forced to retire as a surgeon due to his cancer diagnoses and treatments related to 9/11. He also points out the death toll from the attacks did not end on that day, either. An average of four people have died each week since then due to a variety of cancers, suicides triggered by PTSD, persistent infections, and other related illnesses. The total has surpassed 7,500 in the last 24 years, according to Huie.