Saving Lives in the Aftermath of Sept 11 Attack
Academy member and medical doctor Robert Lahita didn’t hesitate to use his medical knowledge to help others during this traumatic experience.
Published November 1, 2001
By Fred Moreno, Dan Van Atta, Jill Stolarik, and Jennifer Tang
Academy Contributors

On September 24, in a cheerful ceremony as part of the Academy’s 183rd Annual Meeting, Dr. Robert Lahita received a special award in appreciation of his years of service as a member of The New York Academy of Sciences (the Academy’s) Board of Governors.
Less than two weeks earlier, on Tuesday, September 11, Lahita was at center stage of a far different venue — a New Jersey pier across from the smoking ruins of what had been the twin towers of the World Trade Center. What had started as a quiet morning making rounds at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York’s Greenwich Village, where he is Chief of Rheumatology, became a living nightmare of burned and mangled bodies arriving by tugboat and ferry from the collapsed buildings across the Hudson River.
“As soon as I heard about the attack, I left the hospital and caught a train to Jersey City, where I’m the medical director of the mobile intensive care units of Hudson County and EMS at Jersey City Medical Center,” Lahita said. Most of his equipment, such as burn kits and trauma materials for treating patients, was in his car in New Jersey. “An EMS dispatcher sent me to the Colgate-Palmolive piers, where hundreds of victims were being unloaded by the Coast Guard and other groups. Had I parked that morning in Manhattan, I might have gone directly to the scene and been among the missing,” he observed.
The Walking Wounded
When Lahita arrived in Jersey City, a handful of paramedics and EMS technicians were trying to deal with the wounded. As the only doctor on the scene, Lahita took over and began treating injuries that ranged from open skull fractures and crushed pelvises to broken arms and legs. Many were firefighters and police officers, as well as “the walking wounded” – people temporarily blinded from the billowing smoke and ash.
“It was the most devastating scene I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “There was lots of blood and a great deal of emotion. It seemed like Armageddon.”
Because the radio transmitter atop the towers was destroyed, Lahita’s efforts to call for more help were thwarted. He immediately assigned specific tasks to everyone working with him. Chairs with wheels were converted into makeshift stretchers, splints were fashioned out of window blinds and, as other supplies like bandages began dwindling, office workers contributed their first-aid kits.
A Scene of Mass Confusion

After an hour Lahita was joined by another doctor and more medical personnel began arriving. As the 200 most critical patients were delivered to area hospitals, Port Authority officials asked Lahita to accompany them on a caravan headed to “ground zero” via the Holland Tunnel. There he found a scene of mass confusion, debris, smoke, fire and five inches of smoldering ash.
“I saw dust, papers and scattered personal belongings everywhere,” he said. “Everyone was covered with ash and it was difficult to breathe.” Lahita carried boxes of masks and began distributing them to rescue workers.
A resident of Ridgewood, New Jersey, Lahita later learned that 35 people from his area were among the dead. However, he knows that his efforts helped save an untold number of people. “I work best under pressure, but this was beyond what I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “I’ll never forget it.” Nor will the people whose lives he saved.
Lahita joins other Members and friends of the Academy in expressing their condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the tragedy. “The Academy personifies science,” he said. “This is a sad occasion for all of us, as the World Trade Center was also a magnificent feat of engineering science.”
Lahita is a Fellow of The New York Academy of Sciences and has been a Member since 1979. He chairs the Academy’s Conference Committee, which he joined in 1991. He also has co-organized two major Academy conferences, B Lymphocytes and Autoimmunity and Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Since 1994, he has been a Member of the Academy’s Committee on the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Also read: How Trauma Changes Us: Life after 9/11