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Pennsylvania
Chiropractors Care for Workers at Somerset Crash Site In the remote hills of western Pennsylvania, lies the wreckage of the fourth hijacked flight — United Airlines Flight 93. Immediately following the plane crash, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a team of pathologists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and American Red Cross workers converged at the site. Among the first Red Cross workers was local chiropractor Evelyn Lemmon, D.C., who volunteered her services as a registered nurse, a designation she has maintained since becoming a chiropractor. They were assigned to care for the team of pathologists and workers who were working at the temporary morgue set up at a national reserve armory approximately four miles from the actual crash site. "I have been involved with Red Cross for over 20 some years, but this is the first time I have been involved with an aviation disaster. It was so totally different than anything else I have done," said Dr. Lemmon. "I wasn't actually doing any morgue work, but we were there to feed and meet any health needs that might come up. Predominately what I did that week was feed the workers." On the Sunday following the crash, Lemmon began performing massages on her fellow Red Cross workers then some members of the morgue team. "There was a break in the action so I started doing some shoulder and neck massages, then one thing lead to another and the workers from the morgue team started coming over and was doing the same thing to them - 10-15 minute massages," explained Lemmon. A couple hours later, Paul Feltzig, the leaders of the morgue team started asking her about chiropractic and massage therapy. "I told him I was a chiropractor then he handed me his card and asked if I could line up some help for his workers. I told him I could do that," she said. Chiropractors Respond Lemmon made a call to her colleague Samuel Sarraf, D.C., asking him to help her up line up chiropractic volunteers to work at the site. Dr. Sarraf immediately contacted Gene Veno, executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Chiropractic Association, who sent out a three county memo by fax and E-mail asking for volunteers. "We received a tremendous outpouring," said Veno. "About 70 chiropractors responded to the initial request." "Then basically the problem was getting identification for the chiropractors because of the security issue. I decided to set up in a church across the road from the armory on Friday morning and took flyers over to the armory site," said Lemmon. She started talking to the workers hoping to spread the word that she had set up across the street when the plans changed. "Next thing you know the state police sends me down to talk to another state police who wanted her to set up under the tents. Then the FBI agent in charge of the morgue site comes out and says to go ahead and set up. I told him we don't have any identification, but he said go ahead and set up. I said fine," she said. Lemmon and a massage therapist set up their tables near the armory around noon then started caring for the workers. "At this point I was panic stricken because I had to see patients at 3 o’clock. I was frantically on the phone with the list from PCA trying to find somebody to relieve me," she said. Of course, she did not have too much trouble finding a replacement. Dr. Nick Senuta from Latrobe took over, who was then relieved by Dr. Marcia Ainsley. On Saturday, nine other chiropractors and three massage therapists provided coverage for the workers throughout the day. "Basically we provided chiropractic care from Friday to Tuesday of the following week. The really important thing is that as a profession it’s a huge breakthrough that we have something to offer during times of disaster to the workers," said Lemmon. Helping the Workers "I was up there twice — Saturday and Sunday - they were long days. The workers did 12 hour shift from 7 am to 7 pm, and they were fed three meals a day, plus they had breaks mid morning and mid afternoon. So we tried to have somebody there while they were on their breaks, it worked out very well," Sarraf said. "The morgue workers were on their feet 12 hours a day, leaning over tables doing a less than pleasant job and it was a wonderful stress relief for these people," said Lemmon. "Most of the people we saw were just fatigued and tired, a lot of them had foot problems because they were on their feet all day. We saw a whole array of things," said Sarraf. "We did it a little different than you would do in a conventional office setting only because we wanted to give these people a little more down time. Instead of just running them through, we would spend a good 10-15 minutes working on each of these patients." Lemmon even got a chance to chat with a FBI agent who talked about the value of chiropractic. "We talked about how chiropractic needs to be a part of their support and he referenced how like when they are on a standoff for a week at a time, how stressful it is. Chiropractically, we balance that nervous system and relieve the stress in a person that way," she said. "I think there a lot in the future for us, we just need to organize formally right now and get recognized that we do have something to offer." When the morgue workers started finishing up, one lady talked to Lemmon about her experiences. "She just filled up with tears and she said she have never been treated like this on an assignment. She motioned to the Red Cross area where food and drinks were available 24 hours a day for the workers. I gave her a hug and she said to me, ‘You will never know how truly appreciated the massage therapists and chiropractors were.’ It was just wonderful," said Lemmon. "To be honest, the feedback was wonderful. These people could tell us thank you enough. It was incredible," said Lemmon. "You do the volunteer thing because it comes back to you ten fold, this was just wonderful. Everybody had a positive word to say. They were all very appreciative that we were there." "They actually shut down the operation early than they expected. The FBI originally told us that it would be about five more weeks," said Sarraf. "Unfortunately, we weren’t able to utilize everybody because the operation ended sooner then they anticipated. Once the FBI pulled out, they shut the morgue down, then our services weren’t needed any longer." Developing a Chiropractic Response Team After realizing the positive impact their presence had on the relief workers, Dr. Lemmon began developing a plan to get chiropractors involved in future emergency relief efforts. "My goal is to put together a formal plan that we can present to FEMA or PEMA to become part of the support system in times of disasters. This was a true opening for us as a profession to be able to offer our services and to be part of that emergency management system in times of disasters," said Lemmon. "She would like to organize the chiropractors in Pennsylvania — PA CERT (Pennsylvania Chiropractic Emergency Response Team) and I think it is a great idea. We were very well received, it was amazing. They were very appreciative and even people from the Red Cross took advantage of our services. I’m hoping this builds some inroads with the Red Cross. We should be a resource for them," said Sarraf. "We had a wonderful response from area chiropractors. Dr. Jim Majors said to me that this was truly an honor to be here to help. That’s the way I felt too. It was an honor to be asked to come and help the workers," Lemmon expressed. "In times of disasters, so many people want to help but they just don't know what to do. Chiropractors are no different, we feel we have something to offer and we just have to be able to access the system, which is what we did."
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