Upcoming EventsFifty years ago today, Nyack Hospital faced one of the worst mass casualty events to have ever occurred in our area. What began as a typical bus ride to school that day for 51 Nyack High School students became a tragedy for the children on the bus, their families, and our entire community.
At 8:02 am, six minutes after a northbound freight train struck the school bus at the Gilchrest Road Valley Cottage rail crossing, Nyack Hospital implemented its disaster plan, mobilizing critical staff and resources in advance of receiving patients. All off duty nurses were summoned with special emphasis on emergency and intensive care personnel.
As Dr. Saul Freedman, Chief of the Nyack Hospital Medical Emergency Services, pulled into his parking spot at the Hospital a nurse came running out with news of the accident. He called for three emergency nurses to grab their first aid equipment and to go with him to the accident scene. Arriving at 8:15 am, they joined Rockland County Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe, ambulance corps members, fire company personnel, and community members who were attending to the injured.
Within the next hour, the Hospital received 45 children and one adult with varying degrees of injuries. The Nyack Hospital team triaged the patients moving them to beds, the radiology department, and operating rooms.
Hospital staff also tended to frantic family members providing updates and support as they waited for news about their loved ones. By 8:45 am, there were almost 100 distraught parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters in the hospital lobby. Then Hospital Administrator Russell Drum moved them all to a large meeting room where the Hospital provided food and beverages around the clock. Nyack priests, rabbis, and ministers arrived to offer support and comfort, and sadly to administer last rites and conditional last rites as well. The switchboard at the Hospital quickly became overwhelmed with inquiries from New York City media outlets, and calls from family and community members, desperate to find out the status of their relative.
By noon that day, 17 major surgeries had been performed, at least 25 blood transfusions completed, and approximately 300 x-rays taken. Physicians from all disciplines assisted surgeons with suturing and sponging during the operations. If ever there was a day the Hippocratic Oath was in action it was that day.
Sadly, five children did not survive.
The article goes on to say, “The death toll would have been much higher – the recovery total much less – without the skill, dedication and concern portrayed by the Nyack Hospital family.”
Over the ensuing days, the desire to help, to be a part of the healing process, ran through all segments of the community. Community fund raising activities generated enough money to cover medical bills and support the families and children impacted and to help ease the healing process.
Today we look back at this tragic accident with heavy hearts for those lost and those who sustained lasting physical and emotional wounds. We also recognize the heroic efforts of emergency personnel and those who rushed to the scene to administer help in many forms. For those of us at Montefiore Nyack, we recognize the outstanding teamwork of our predecessors. Their actions as well as those of the community then remind us that no matter the tragedy or circumstance, whether the accident of 50 years ago, the Brinks Armored car robbery in 1981, or the Covid pandemic of the last two years, we rally together as a community resilient in our support of one another. I think this is a lesson we can all seek solace in and draw comfort from on this somber day.
Thank you.
Mark E. Geller, MD
President & CEO
Montefiore Nyack Hospital
