Reuniting and the Bonds of Trauma After Flight 1380

This is the story about a “family” I never knew that I had until a tragic and traumatic event brought us together. Following the incident that occurred on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, a cohesive bond was formed among all of us directly involved.
 
The Immediate Aftermath
Immediately following our offloading of the plane, several buses were lined up to transport us to the Philadelphia airport terminals from the tarmac. It just so happened that my family was on the same bus as Peggy Phillips, the nurse who assisted me in the performance of CPR on Jennifer Riordan.
My parents and Peggy began to converse about their reasons for being in New York, and at some point during their conversation they began talking about Peggy’s daughters role in the Broadway musical Hello Dolly. I would see Peggy periodically throughout the day, but I unfortunately never took the time to get her full story.
Tim McGinty and I met up again in the unused terminal where we were taken after the incident. We ended up being able to take a few photos with one another and ended up exchanging phone numbers. Again, we didn’t have the opportunity to get the full perspective of what we had just experienced together.
I remember telling Tim to stay strong and know that this experience was going to affect us in the days or weeks to come. Little did I know at that moment that the words coming out of my mouth would be so meaningful and true not only to Tim, but to me as well.
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Source: JEMS Operations - September 26, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Andrew Needum, NRP Tags: Exclusive Articles Resiliency Operations Source Type: news