 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Terror halts surgeon's studies
By JIM ROSS
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- The call didn't last long. Dr. Stanley Kokocki borrowed a cell phone, dialed up his wife and told her the basics: I'm okay and I'm going to work. Goodbye. Kokocki, an Inverness surgeon, placed that call the morning of Sept. 11. His wife was in Citrus County. He was in downtown Manhattan. Kokocki was attending a weeklong medical seminar, but the seminar stopped once the terrorists attacked. Within minutes of the first airplane crash, Kokocki and 150 other surgeons in attendance stopped studying and started practicing. Specifically, they helped staff the makeshift triage center that authorities established at Chelsea Piers, not far from the World Trade Center. Joanne Kokocki worried about her husband that day, but he didn't have time to worry about himself. During an interview Thursday, Kokocki, now back in Inverness, described an incredible day of destruction, injury, healing and heroism. He saw the damage. He witnessed the horrible aftermath. And when he left the triage center at 8 p.m., "all you had was this big orange glow where the towers had been." "New York," the surgeon said, "is never going to be the same." Kokocki established his Citrus Surgical Associates practice four years ago. Before that, he practiced in Spring Hill. Kokocki completed his surgical training at New York's Methodist Hospital and has family in the region. Those factors, plus the seminar plan, inspired him to register for a continuing education conference that Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx was sponsoring. The weeklong conference started Sept. 10. Lectures were delivered at a Manhattan hotel where the students were staying. Kokocki and his classmates were in the ballroom listening to a lecture the second day when organizers quickly delivered the horrifying news: A plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. Authorities needed medical professionals to help treat the expected crush of injured patients. The students' response was unanimous, Kokocki said. "Where do you want us to go and what do you want us to do?" The surgeons boarded a bus and received a police escort to Chelsea Piers, where emergency workers were transforming a warehouse into a triage center. "We knew something catastrophic had happened," Kokocki said. "You could only see one tower by the time we got set up." But there was no time for reflection. Kokocki instinctively retreated into "doctor mode," trying to anticipate the kinds of injuries: burns, crush wounds and so on. From time to time, emergency workers would provide a news update: the Pentagon, the Pittsburgh plane, and so on. But the surgeons were scrambling to establish their on-the-run clinic. "You had so much to do that you didn't have time to think about anything else," Kokocki said. The surgeons wouldn't be performing surgery this day; the patients in critical condition were immediately taken to hospitals. Kokocki and his colleagues stabilized patients. Considering the circumstances -- folding tables covered with sheets served as examining tables -- all went well. "It seemed very well organized," Kokocki said. He is a fan of Tom Clancy novels and has participated in disaster drills here and during his training. But this was the real thing. Kokocki said he treated patients for hours. There wasn't much time to discuss what the patients had experienced. "Everything was just reverberating because everybody was talking," he said. "Security was really tight -- FBI all over." He finally left about 8 p.m., once area doctors and hospitals were able to handle the load. He got back to the hotel, turned on the TV and called home. He was unable to secure a rental car and air traffic was nonexistent. So Kokocki took an Amtrak train, leaving New York on Sept. 12 and arriving home the next day. Kokocki praised New York's firefighters, police officers and emergency crews. "What I did I did because I was trained," he said. But those men and women: "That's a true calling." Kokocki recalled President Bush's description of the attacks as "acts of war." "That," Kokocki said of the president's phrase, "is an accurate description." Share your storiesAmericans everywhere are joined in sorrow over the events of Sept. 11. The Citrus Times would like to help you share your stories about missing or lost loved ones, about the bravery and compassion shown by rescuers, about military reservists and others who are preparing for war, or about any other ways in which the terrorist actions have affected your life. Readers are invited to contact the Times with their stories. Call 860-7301; e-mail Citrus@sptimes.com; fax to 860-7320.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Citrus Times |
