At 'Ground Zero' in Manhattan
IU-Wishard Emergency Doc on Tragedy's Frontlines
As an emergency room physician, Michael L. Olinger is familiar with working in an environment where calamity, trauma and tragedy can strike and swirl like a twister. But nothing in his vast experience could prepare him for the devastation wrought by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers in lower Manhattan.
"Unbelievable, very surreal," says Dr. Olinger, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and medical director of emergency medical and ambulance services at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis.
"The enormity of the destruction is so vast and virtually impossible to describe," adds Dr. Olinger, whose crackled cell phone conversation is laced with the staccato background noise of wailing sirens and grumbling heavy-equipment vehicles.
While the total number of casualties is unknown at this time, it's estimated that as many as 5,000 people were killed and thousands injured when two highjacked commercial airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers. Shortly thereafter, another highjacked airliner veered into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing all aboard and about 190 military and civilian employees.
Dr. Olinger was in upper state New York at an emergency medicine conference when the attacks occurred in Manhattan and Washington. He was immediately dispatched to New York City to serve in a role for which has extensive training. Dr. Olinger is a medical services coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue System, working side-by-side with emergency crews to provide emergency care to victims who are trapped beneath rubble.
It isn't the first time Dr. Olinger's expertise has been put to the test. He was involved in emergency operations in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and later that same year when Hurricane Marilyn struck the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dr. Olinger also was among the support staff at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.
Closer to home, Dr. Olinger has served on Indiana's Emergency Medical Services Commission and has been medical director for several EMS agencies in the Indianapolis-Marion County area. He also is assistant medical director for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis Racing League.
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Media Contact: Joe Stuteville
Tel: (317)274-7722
317-212-1275 (pager)
Email: jstutevi@iupui.edu
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