Above, words of support from children in New York City and beyond for the workers of the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center.
On September 11, 2001, the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center provided comprehensive, time-critical support to survivors of the World Trade Center attacks with life-threatening burn injuries.
"We had a unique role within the city during that time,” said Dr. Robert Winchell, Chief of the Division of Trauma, Burns, Acute and Critical Care at Weill Cornell Medicine, who oversees the Burn Center.
“The patients that came to us—not only did they have a large total body surface area, but these were third-degree burns. These were very deep burns that needed surgery,” NYP nurse Ann Cooper told news channel NY1. After seeing the attacks on television, Cooper rushed into work. “Many of our patients were not in the [World Trade Center] or were in the lobby. Some of them were out on the sidewalk; one person was at a bus stop. To think of how their lives just changed so drastically and terribly that morning still haunts me,” she said.
Founded together with the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation (NYFFBCF), the Hearst Burn Center has been dedicated to improving the lives of burn survivors for five decades.
“It was a collaborative partnership and still is to this day,” said Bill Leahy, former President of the NYFFBCF and a firefighter for over two decades.
“Every patient that came to the Hearst Burn Center from the site of the attacks had critical injuries,” said Leahy. “The Burn Center had a very difficult job to do. There’s people out there to this day that are living whole lives and getting to see their children born, their children walk down the aisle, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, because of the work of the Burn Center at that time and the dedicated staff that were there.”
Twenty five years later, and the Hearst Burn Center remains one of the nation’s premier facilities for burn care and recovery. As the only center in New York City verified by the American Burn Association, the Hearst Burn Center is ensuring burn survivors regain function and confidence. A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and more meet patients’ unique needs. The Center has treated over 10,000 patients and has become a leader in the field with innovative burn research programs, community outreach and education initiatives, and advanced clinical care.
“The future of burn care is undergoing a lot of evolution,” said Dr. Winchell. “We’ve done a very good job with our prevention efforts; we’ve also seen a lot of developments in the way that we manage burn care—advancements in a lot of things that used to be painful inpatient care over a period of weeks are now much more easily tolerated, multiday modalities.”
The Hearst Burn Center was named in honor of generous funding from The Hearst Foundation, longtime and ongoing NYP supporters. Philanthropy like Hearst’s continues to power our important work.