Former NYC Paramedic shares her 9/11 experience

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — It has been 24 years since the September 11 attacks in New York City. 

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day, but without our first responders, it could have been many more. 

Ellen Leichert is a psychiatric nurse practitioner in the VA Bay Pines Health Care System.  

Before moving to Florida in 2005, she was a paramedic in NYC.

She spent 12 years in that job, but September 11, 2001, is a day she still remembers vividly.

“We pulled under the Brooklyn Bridge and started eating breakfast,” she said. “The next thing I knew, we both saw a plane coming across the skyline.” 

Leichert said while watching the plane, they realized something was wrong. 

Seconds later, the plane hit the first tower. 

“We couldn’t believe it,” she said. “Did that actually just happen? That’s when I called into the radio that the plane hit the tower.” 

They rushed to Manhattan to help. 

Leichert said the scene was chaotic, with people rushing out of the World Trade Center and more crews arriving.

Minutes later, things became more intense.

“Then we heard an explosion,” she said. “So we look up and the other tower was a fireball on top.”  

Leichert didn’t know it yet, but the second tower was hit. With debris falling, she and everyone else rushed to get away.

“We heard a rumble and we started to see the second tower come down,” she said. “And people were running from that area, and there was a cloud of smoke starting to follow and build up around us. I was pulling so many people, as many as I can into the back of my ambulance.” 

From helping victims with severe burns to the people who lost their lives when the towers fell, it’s a day Leichert can’t forget.

However, it’s the events from that day that led her to her current job.

She hopes that others who experienced that day realize they’re not alone. 

“In a way, I was honored to work that day because I was able to help others and survive and move forward and continue my work and to help as many people as I can, because I did get a second chance and I know not many did,” she said. “So for them, I will do the best that I can.”