'WRONG WAY, WRONG WAY!'

Hello - I am trying to find the paramedic from Colorado that I met up with running to the WTC on the morning of 9/11. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his name, and we obviously didn't have any time to really talk, but I know he was visiting NY that day and we were both downtown when everything happened and were running down Broadway (or Church St.) in order to provide assistance. I remember that he didn't have his Paramedic ID with him because he was just visiting NY and wasn't expecting to be called into action. I also credit him with helping to save my life. This man and I were on the corner Broadway and St. Peter's church setting up temporary medical triage, pulling people who were hurt off the line of people leaving the building. When the first tower fell not many of us had any idea what was happening because we were so close, just one block from the base. From the sound, I thought that a missile was coming in and I started running across the street.

What I'll never forget is this guy yelling to me 'WRONG WAY, WRONG WAY!' and so I ran back to him, we both crouched down by a very small wall on the corner of the church's property and I remember him saying, 'Just breathe slow and deep' and we covered our mouths with our shirts. When the debris cloud hit us we were in pitch black for about 5 minutes or more and I was starting to hyperventilate and I know I would have lost it had this person not calmed me down with a few words during those crutial moments.

Within the blackness, a few people were crawling by us and were really hysterical, and him and I each went our separate ways trying to calm a few people down and help them from choking on the air - I couldn't have done that without him first calming *me* down.

After the cloud started to clear I never saw him again. And it wasn't until I was back towards Worth St. and the second tower fell that I even realized what had happened.

These past months have been extremely difficult. And for some reason I have not met anyone (except in the very few days after 9/11, in the 'pit') that shared in that same experience, and others afterwards.

I can think of nothing I'd rather do than be able to write or talk with that person that I was with during that morning. And since I know that he was a Paramedic from Colorado I feel that I have a chance to perhaps come in contact with him. I know you are a close-knit community in many ways, and although Colorado is a huge state with many paramedic departments, I have a feeling that someone may know who I'm talking about. I'm sure he must have mentioned it to people in his department - so I'm hoping that through email we may be able to come in contact.

I'm not asking to start a chain main, but if you could send this to a few paramedics that you know in CO, and they forward it other paramedics that they know, perhaps this will work out. Or perhaps you have a list of the main email addresses for the different paramedic offices around CO...

Or if someone has a better idea of how I could find this person, please let me know - It would mean a lot to me, and perhaps to him also.

Thanks for your time...
Shaun Duff, NYC
[email protected]