The World Trade Center disaster: a tragic source of medical advancement
The history of medicine is full of examples of the determination of scientists when faced with public health disasters. As a result of this strength, many tragedies that occurred in the 20th century were followed by important scientific developments. If World War I marked the advent of chemical weapons, it also provided respiratory specialists with knowledge about the effects of poisonous gases on the lungs and led to the development of the first practical gas mask for mass production. The increased use of aircraft in warfare during World War II prompted Forrest M. Bird to develop oxygen masks to enable pilots to fly at higher altitudes than ever before. Further improvements of this technology led to the invention of the first modern ventilators, such as the Bird Universal Medical Respirator. The legacy of the Vietnam War to the medical field was the identification of acute respiratory distress syndrome (called Da Nang Lung at that time), by Colorado researchers in 1967 [1]. Other tragedies, such as the 1986 catastrophic nuclear accident of Chernobyl, led to a better understanding of the physiology of radiation poisoning, which had been evolving since the Hiroshima bombing, and helped improve treatment for victims of other disasters. There were advances in the creation of sterile hospital rooms, infection prevention, intravenous transfusion, life support systems, plasmapheresis, platelet transfusion, and bone marrow transplants.

The dawn of the 21st century saw another tragedy that will remain in the memory of many generations to come: the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City, NY, …