It has been 25 years since New York City's Twin Towers fell, but Bob Patterson still remembers where he was that day: A staff meeting in Lebanon, Missouri.
"The staff meeting just kind of froze as we watched what was happening," said Patterson, now the emergency medical services director for Mercy.
Patterson, who has spent his whole career in emergency services and is marking 38 years with Mercy, witnessed firsthand how EMS changed after 9/11.
"It just really shook people, I think, to the core as it relates to security and safety and being alert," Patterson said. "We're really focused on safety and protection of our facilities and our vehicles. Certainly our personnel, too. We encourage them to be very alert, aware of their surroundings and to report
things they think may be unusual or suspicious."
Additionally, personal protective equipment became a greater consideration. First responders spent weeks inhaling the toxic chemicals at Ground Zero during search and rescue efforts, and the nation began to see the health effects in the years after.
"I think that's probably one of the big things that came from that, is being more attuned to our personal protective equipment, and really encouraging our folks to use those tools more readily," Patterson said.
The Oklahoma City bombing, an act of domestic terrorism six years earlier that destroyed a federal building and killed 167 people, primed EMS for the changes that Sept. 11, 2001, would bring.
"That was a tough day, too, to think about that could happen at a facility like that," Patterson said. "That's why I say I think that event and 9/11 really got everybody more aware of their surroundings at all times and being a little more suspicious, maybe, than we were previously."
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield Mercy EMS director recalls how 9/11 changed paramedicine
