Dr. Michael Crane: Treating 9/11 First Responders

Conversations with Allan Wolper

Dr. Michael Crane treats the selfless 911 responders who came to New York City from all over America to help the victims of the horrific attack on the World Trade Center that cost 2996 people their lives. Dr. Crane, who directs the World Trade Center Health Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says the religious and moral lessons he learned growing up was behind his desire to counsel and help those first responders. It was what he thought about when he first saw the towers fall from a nearby Consolidated Edison office building where he was a medical director at that time. “I prayed at that moment that I would be able to help anyone who was hurt,” he said. “It was a prayer I grew up knowing the God of love, the Irish Catholic God from the Catholic Church.” Dr. Crane’s medical and psychological treatment of the 911 First Responders has won him their admiration and affection. “One thing I had forgotten was that I was always taught that God collects his chits,” said with