The World Trade Center Story

Aftermath

Sergeant John McLoughlin and Officer Will Jimeno were taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan as soon as they were freed from the pile. McLoughlin was extricated from a space about "the size of a body." Both of his legs were crushed, and he suffered from kidney and respiratory failure. To survive the painful series of operations he would have to face, doctors put him into a medically induced coma for several weeks. A year later he's still recovering from his wounds but making steady progress. He's determined to walk back into his precinct house one day and return to work.

Will Jimeno experienced severe compartment syndrome, a condition in which the body swells as a result of having to endure a crushing weight. Left without circulation for so many hours, the muscles in his left leg literally died and had to be surgically removed. He undergoes painful physical therapy three times a week and is now able to walk with a brace on his leg. He was able to see the birth of his second daughter, the wish that kept him going throughout his ordeal. Like Sergeant McLoughlin, he has vowed to return to the PAPD and has been promised a job at the department's firing range as soon as he's able. The thought of retiring never entered his mind. "The 37 wouldn't want me to quit," he says.