Hidden Heroes

Hero: An ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances
doing what they must do without regard for self.

The problem was electricity. Without it the babies in NICU could die. Superstorm Sandy was raging. The power was out. The backup lights were on at NYU Langone Medical Center but no one knew how long they would last. The city was flooding. Time was running out. What to do?

Move the babies now.

It was a gutsy call fraught with risk of injury or death, not to mention the ever present lawsuits. But to stay meant the unthinkable possibility of watching babies die while being able to do nothing. Kudos to whomever made that decision. We’ll never know.

So, how do you remove twenty tiny, sick premies in a hurricane? Carefully.

Langone is a teaching hospital filled with medical students who came immediately. Having had three college students, this is a parent’s nightmare. Kids in a hurricane! Not long ago their parents were trying to get them to brush their teeth and clean their rooms. Now they’re out there being heroes without proper supervision.

There were no working computers so residents sat at tables with flashlights writing out summaries for each child so the proper information on their condition went to the next hospital. Errors here could have cost lives.

Nurses like Margot Condon did their job well. She was one of many who carried babies into the storm while manually squeezing respirators to breathe for them. There were no working elevators so they had to carry them down nine flights of stairs without lights.

The doctors walked with the tiny patients in a six person procession. The stairwells were lined with people holding flashlights in the dark.

Dads and family members stayed with their babies since many of the Moms were still hospitalized. Some of the babies were only hours old as they were separated from their mothers.

Even a security guard held the oxygen tank, backing down nine flights of stairs one at a time.

Ambulance crews drove through the storm to waiting hospitals dodging debris while pounded by 75 mile per hour winds and rain.

And they did this twenty times.

Describing the amazing group of people working together, nurse Margot Condon said,”It was just a beautiful thing.”

I have to agree. But it didn’t stop there.

The generators failed at 10 pm. By midnight all power went off and the entire hospital was evacuated by private ambulances and the New York Fire Department. It took all night. The staff were exhausted. Patients had to be carried and skidded down the stairs on rescue sleds.

All 215 patients were methodically evacuated one floor at a time at a rate of one every fifteen minutes. Waiting patients were given flashlights in their rooms and told to stay calm. No one panicked.

Adapting plans by the minute, the hospital staff, NYFD, ambulance crews, students, security guards, family and volunteers got everyone out safely. No one was lost. No one was injured.

All went as it should go. All did their jobs. Some did jobs they created. Some volunteered. Some were drafted. Considering the potential for problems in the storm of the century, the outcome was perfect.

During the long recovery, thousands of people will be doing their best, unsung and unrewarded. They don’t have to do it. But they will.

Thanks for that.