WTC burns victim released from hospital

(29 Jan 2002)

1. Elaine Duch, World Trade Centre burn victim, being wheeled into news conference
2. Pull back from Duch with family in front of photographers
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr Palmer Bessy, Weill Cornell Hospital Burn Centre:
"This is a far happier beautiful Tuesday in New York than the first Tuesday when we met Ms Duch. She came to us from St Vincents where she had been evacuated and she arrived upstairs after a period of time in the emergency department in our burn unit at about 6pm that day. She was critically ill on the ventilator and many other forms of life support, she had burns over 77 per cent of her body and she also had a severe injury of her lungs."
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elaine Duch, World Trade Centre burn victim:
"Well I got hurt on the 88th floor. And I remember that they got an elevator and we went down to the 44th floor and then from there we walked all the way down and see I got hurt on 88 but I did manage to get out of the building. Yes Tower One. Well it was a fire and so I don't know if I was on fire or if it was the heat and my watch snapped off and my glasses shattered."
(QUESTION): "Heard from other people coming down, the stairways were very crowded?" "Yes, they had to move out of the way because they said there is a hurt person, move and they went to the side to I could go down. There were a couple of people, Jerry Gaim was one of them, who was helping me going down. I can't remember who the other person was."
(QUESTION): "How long was it before you realised what had happened?"
"I guess about a month ago when I was able to understand and realise where I was."
5. Mid view of Duch with one of her rescuers

STORYLINE:

A woman who was severely burned during the World Trade Centre attacks in September was released from hospital on Tuesday after four months of treatment.

Her face and body bandaged, 49-year-old Elaine Duch, told reporters at Weill Cornell Hospital's Burn Centre that she was on the 88th floor of the one of the twin towers on September 11 when she was injured.

Rescuers helped her get down.

Wearing a New York Fire Department baseball cap, Duch said it was not until a month ago that she understood the extent of the attack on the World Trade Centre and the casualties.

Duch is the 11th trade centre burn patient to be released from the medical centre.

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