Doctor: 'There Was Such An Outpouring of Support'

Driving into Ground Zero in the days following the attacks was like stepping onto the scene of a movie, said Dr. Andrew Lowe, PharmD, and director of pharmacy at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.

“It’s a hard thing to comprehend, when you see the magnitude,” he said.

Lowe was one of several physicians sent to Ground Zero following the attacks. He went to Ground Zero as part of a Federal Medical Disaster Assistance Team. Like most California teams and task forces, he was there for 10 days.

“Our job was to support the people who were working in Ground Zero - the ones who were tearing down and cleaning, the construction workers - to take care of their medical needs,” Lowe said. “We were literally less than 50 feet from Ground Zero. We were working out of a tent.”

They treated a lot of infections and a fair number of carbon monoxide poisoning cases, he said. They triaged the sick. Since the rest of the area was fully functional, the serious cases were sent to nearby hospitals, Lowe said.

“In an area around Wall Street, where there was a Red Cross Respite center, that’s where the meals were," he said. "So I went there. You could see that people were so exhausted. There was not much talking, not much bantering. But there was such an outpouring of support.”

Amid all the sadness, there was the beauty of letters posted in the Red Cross Center, he said.

“Kids had written letters for the people working at Ground Zero,” Lowe said. “I remember reading them. It was heartwarming.”

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