Purchase
Who They Were: Inside the World Trade Center DNA Story:
Robert Shaler
With compelling prose and insight, Who They Were reveals the previously untold stories of the scientists determined to bring closure to devastated families in the wake of America's largest disaster.
The Unprecedented Effort to Identify the Missing
Free Press
September 2005
384 pages
ISBN: 0743275209
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
In Who They Were, Dr. Robert C. Shaler, the man who
directed the largest and most groundbreaking forensic DNA
investigation in U.S. history, tells with poignant clarity
and refreshing honesty the story behind the relentless
effort to identify the 2,749 victims of the attacks on the
World Trade Center. No part of the investigation into the 9/11 attacks has
taken as long or been less discussed than the daunting task
of identifying the victims -- and the hijackers -- from the
remains in the rubble of Ground Zero. In Who They Were, Dr.
Robert C. Shaler, former director of the Forensic Biology
Department at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical
Examiner, tells the inside story of the relentless process
of DNA identification and depicts the victories and
frustrations that he and his team of scientists experienced
during more than three years of grueling work. On September 11, 2001, New York City was unprepared for the
mass-fatality event that occurred at the World Trade
Center. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had to
completely reconfigure itself to process and identify the
nearly 20,000 remains that would eventually come through
its doors. Facing an astonishing array of obstacles -- from
political infighting and an overwhelming bureaucracy to the
nearly insurmountable task of corralling personnel and
supplies to handle the work -- Shaler and his team quickly
established an unprecedented network of cooperation among
public agencies and private labs doing cutting-edge
research. More than a story of innovative science at the frontiers of
human knowledge, Who They Were also tells the very human
story of how Dr. Shaler and his staff forged important and
lasting bonds with the families of those who were lost. He
shares the agony of mistakes made in the chaos and
unintended misidentifications resulting in the excruciating
difficulty of having to retrieve remains from families of
the lost. Finally, Dr. Shaler shares how he and the dedicated team of
scientists who gave up more than three years of their lives
when the rest of the world had moved on had to face the
limits of science in dealing with the appalling level of
destruction at Ground Zero and concede that no more victims
would be sent home to their families. As of April 2005,
when the process was suspended, only 1,592 out of the 2,749
who died on that fateful day had been identified.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy