Peggy McRae looked up from reading a patient’s chart in the ICU and caught the attacks on a TV above the bed.

“You’re trying to get your arms around what was happening,” said McRae, a nurse and then-manager for cardiac services at four Fort Lauderdale hospitals.

Should they go on alert? Prep for mass casualties?

McRae and her husband, Patrick, a Lewiston native, had celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary the day before, Sept. 10. They were shocked to hear terrorists traveled through Portland, so close to his hometown.

Eight days later, Patrick died suddenly of a massive heart attack. For McRae, his death and memories of Sept. 11 are closely linked. Nine months later, she moved to Lewiston and became director of the emergency department and critical care for Central Maine Medical Center.

Emergency preparedness has been huge for hospitals in the past 10 years, she said. They’re ready for victims of weapons of mass destruction and bio-terrorism. A clear command structure has been laid out. Internal security honed.

Big hospitals like CMMC are helping smaller ones prep and plan through a formal arrangement paid for by grants and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They stock more decontamination masks and gowns than they used to, more “antidote-type drugs.”

There’s more being “attuned to the potential,” said McRae, 54.

“If something doesn’t happen for a while, you go through the motions of (a) drill,” she said. “This was an event that had such an impact, I don’t see that type of complacency.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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