County coroner's visit to 'ground zero' very sobering

County coroner's visit to 'ground zero' very sobering

Jan. 8, 2001

By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Journal Staff Writer

"At 08:45, Tuesday, Sept. 11, a commercial aircraft crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center..."

These words from a U.S. government communication have a particular relevance to Paul Bostrom, Montezuma County coroner.

Bostrom, a volunteer member of D-Mort (disaster mortuary), served at the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office from Oct. 12 to Nov. 12, 2001. Although he was not involved with body retrieval, he did assist the office in identification. Sunday night in Cortez, he shared his impressions of the disaster’s aftermath at a public presentation.

The New York medical examiners typically conduct 22,000 death investigations a year, Bostrom said. Sept. 11 threw the department into chaos.

"By the nature of this accident, having 3,000 deaths thrown in is a disaster," Bostrom said. The medical examiner’s office was snowed under and desperate for help. At first, D-Mort regions from the eastern United States were dispatched, serving two-week stints. But, "all the people in D-Mort have regular jobs," Bostrom explained, and most soon exhausted the time they could spend away from work.

Bostrom, who is retired, was able to dedicate a month to the often-nightmarish problems faced by the New York medical examiners.

Those problems were many.

To begin with, Bostrom said, there were three types of deaths from the disaster. At the explosion area were the burn deaths. "Think of the 90th-floor area. It was like a bomb — 2000 degrees. That’s cremation temperatures," he said. Many victims were incinerated right at the scene.

Others died from the impact of the explosion, from concussive effects on their bodies. The hardest deaths for Bostrom to come to terms with were the "bottom-dwellers," who died when the towers collapsed.

"Had the building not collapsed, we would have had half the casualties. That’s an honest estimate. Osama bin Laden got more than he bargained for."

The gruesome manners of death did not facilitate identification. Medical teams had to employ a variety of methods, looking at DNA, dental records, fingerprints (when possible), tattoos, deformities, custom jewelry and previous surgeries.

"These bodies had been burned beyond recognition," Bostrom said. "It takes a long time."

More often than not, remains were not intact — only 680 whole bodies have been discovered to date, Bostrom said, while there have been 12,400 body parts recovered from the wreckage. More are uncovered every day — by workers combing through the debris.

Even so, the medical examiner’s office and volunteers like Bostrom worked steadily toward successful identification. One victim was identified when X-rays turned up screws in his knee. When comparing it to the medical records of those reported missing, the examiner found a match.

Getting records for comparison, though, was another problem. Family members of possible victims — who represented 80 different countries, not all of them English-speaking often gave varying information about the same details.

Compounding the problems of Bostrom’s "very sobering" duties was the dust. Some 1 to 1.5 inches covered everything, including bodies. "That dust got wet. If bodies came in like that," it made matters worse, he said.

Medical teams also had to contend with the promises of then-mayor Rudy Guiliani, who had aggressively campaigned for the quick issuance of death certificates, Bostrom said. Families could petition the court for a "death certificate by affidavit." This need for closure, while understandable, often conflicted with the necessity for thoroughness by the medical examiner.

What concerned Bostrom the most was the potential for fraud. That concern leaves him leery of victim compensation in its current form. "It’s a can of worms," he said. "I’m skeptical about the value of this."

Despite the grimness of his task, Bostrom valued his experience. "You’re not doing this for New York City," he said. "There were people there who may have only come for one day."

And the destruction was not confined to the World Trade Center, but spread across a five-block area. Businesses were destroyed and apartments condemned, leaving many people suddenly homeless and unable to obtain necessities.

Bostrom said many victims still lie unburied because retrieval crews cannot safely enter the condemned buildings.

"One of the things that impacted me was the circumstances," Bostrom said. "If you just happened to be there that day, you were probably going to lose your life. It wasn’t fair."

That, he said, was an impact no picture can convey.