City begins massive rescue effort as volunteers seek to help

NEW YORK - After the initial horror, after the nightmarish scenes of people on fire jumping from buildings, the city braced itself for more pain: digging through the rubble for the dead and the injured.

The downtown area was quickly cordoned off as hundreds of volunteers and medical workers converged on triage centers, offering services and blood.

New York City Hospitals Anxious About Blood Supply Levels

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN



			New York Area Blood Donation Centers (September 11, 2001)

Scores of people began responding to the New York Blood Center's emergency appeal for blood donations issued soon after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center early this morning.

Before the crashes, the blood center had a five-day supply of blood - ``a pretty good inventory'' for normal circumstances, said Dr. Robert L. Jones, the center's chief executive officer and president.

``We're able to process'' the increased donations in part because the blood center moved personnel from training programs scheduled for today to collection sites throughout the city.

Traffic jams were a difficult initial handicap, and police escorts were needed to deliver blood and blood products to hospitals treating the victims.

``The city is in chaos right now,'' Dr. Jones said. ``It is the event of our lifetime, it is a war, we are at war.''

The center is working closely with the Greater New York Hospital Association and individual hospitals to monitor blood needs on an hourly basis.

Dr. Jones said he was in e-mail contact with three other blood collecting organizations - America's Blood Centers, the American Red Cross and the American Association of Blood Banks. ``They all stand ready to ramp up collections if necessary and also to move blood to us which happens to be on their shelves already,'' Dr. Jones said.

``We don't see that need right now, but it will take some time to sort out what we need,'' Dr. Jones said at about 11:30 a.m.

The Red Cross center in Boston had no blood to send to New York City, Dr. Jones said. He said the center was checking on supplies in Philadelphia.

Asked how blood could be delivered to a city that was shut down, Dr. Jones said ``that is a good question - without air traffic, we are kind of stuck.''

On a normal day, the New York Blood Center collects about 1,200 units of whole blood, which is broken down into various parts. The center distributes about 2,000 units of blood products on a normal day.

WCBS is reporting that 200 policemen and 250 firemen are missing.

Dear God. Many police and firefighters are being brought into hospitals, but they've just reported that at least half of the 400+ firefighters are presumed dead...that there are going to be a lot of funerals.

As the mother of a firefighter who had to retire when her illness (rheumatoid arthritis) prevented her from passing the physicals, I know that she would have made extraordinary efforts to rescue as many people as she could. She also knew people in the NYFD, and I can tell you her heart is breaking.

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