ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – On November 20, 2001, Cheryl Allen recalls the 28 days she spent working as a medic near the towers of the World Trade Center in her Albuquerque home.
“That pin was from the President of the United States,” said Allen. She had just finished a night shift at an Albuquerque hospital on September 11, 2001 when the world changed. “I was working in the emergency room on downtown Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue and the news came on,” she explained.
At the time, she was also a paramedic for a medical disaster relief team called for help across the country. She received a call just a few hours after the terrorist attacks.
“I was wondering when and if the airspace would be cleared for flying, if I would be available to fly to New York, and I didn’t even hesitate,” she said.
She says she arrived at Ground Zero along with 33 other doctors, nurses, suturing technicians, and others in New Mexico on Sept. 26 to help many people recover for nearly a month. “Whether it was the heart monitoring, whether it was IVs, whether it was sewing,” she said. “My heart felt like someone had pressed it really hard.”
And on that 20th anniversary of that dark time, she said she remembered the heroism that came out of the ashes. “Never be afraid to reach out and help someone who needs help or you think they might need help,” she said.
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