On this day eight years ago I was working in Illinois for a company that supplied kidney dialysis supplies to clinics and home patients. I was working in the home patient division. I had a lot of my patients on vacation. They were terrified not only by the events that had just happened but how would we be able to get their life saving supplies to them. For people whose kidneys no longer work dialysis was the only way to stay alive. We had no airports open to fly supplies out of. I lived close to Chicago and we didn’t know in those days whether or not there would be more targets and Chicago was a logical one.
In the days that followed 9/11 I spent long hours at work trying to comfort and reassure my patients that somehow I would make sure that they would get their supplies. These people and their families had become friends and were not just customers to me. Somehow we managed to get the supplies where we needed them to be. None of my patients on vacation went without. None of my patients in the Pacific Northwest, which was my territory, were without supplies.
I was as scared as every other American in those days. I was never so thankful for that degree I have in Theatre/Communications as I was during those days because I was able to pull on that training to pretend to be a lot more calm then I was feeling inside. The last thing my patients needed was to have a representative who was scared. They were scared enough. I needed to reassure them that they would be taken care of no matter what else happened. It was one of the most frightening times of my life but one in which I take pride in. Everyone I worked with pulled together to take care of our patients. While some dealt in death during those days I worked with people who literally provided life.
In the days that followed 9/11 I spent long hours at work trying to comfort and reassure my patients that somehow I would make sure that they would get their supplies. These people and their families had become friends and were not just customers to me. Somehow we managed to get the supplies where we needed them to be. None of my patients on vacation went without. None of my patients in the Pacific Northwest, which was my territory, were without supplies.
I was as scared as every other American in those days. I was never so thankful for that degree I have in Theatre/Communications as I was during those days because I was able to pull on that training to pretend to be a lot more calm then I was feeling inside. The last thing my patients needed was to have a representative who was scared. They were scared enough. I needed to reassure them that they would be taken care of no matter what else happened. It was one of the most frightening times of my life but one in which I take pride in. Everyone I worked with pulled together to take care of our patients. While some dealt in death during those days I worked with people who literally provided life.
Eight years later I am in another state and another job but I still remember those days. I remember with pride that we took care of the people we needed to. I still keep in touch with some of my nurses and patients from those days. I am so thankful we made it through those terrible times.
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