Overcoming September 11
9/11 hero wants to go back to work
ABOVE: Rachel Wyn stands by her horse Troy on her property in Mexican Springs Wednesday, October 1. Wyn, a September 11th rescue worker, now suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. BELOW: Wyn, right, shares a cigarette with her partner Melissa Garrett outside their home in Mexican Springs Wednesday. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

MEXICAN SPRINGS, — Like almost everybody in the U.S., Rachel Wyn remembers where she was when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, killing thousands.

She was on her way to the Pentagon on an Army shuttle bus when the plane hit the building.

Wyn, 34, was a health technician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Instantly she changed from being a operating room assistant to being a “tagger and bagger” of body parts from the Pentagon and Ground Zero.

She has problems talking about 9/11, and has post-traumatic stress disorder, so her friend Melissa Garrett, who was also in the army on 9/11 helps her remember a few details. They live together on a decent-sized Mexican Springs ranch, where they have 12 horses, eight sheep, eight goats, 10 dogs, eight cats, six llamas, a huge Harlequin macaw named Romeo, finches, parakeets, geese, three ferrets, sheep, 12 chickens and a lot of other weird things.

Wyn remembers only bits and pieces of that day. She recalls arriving at the Pentagon and being put to work getting the injured people in helicopters to go to “any hospital that was available.” It took most of the day to move the injured and she remembers being very thirsty.

It was dark when the rescue effort moved to the dead people, Wyn said. There was no equipment to get the ones who were suffocating out of the large pieces of rubble, she remembers.

She spent hours “tagging and bagging,” she said. It is an Army term for cleaning up body parts for identification later. She remembers the flood lights coming on “but we didn’t finish it.” She never took a break for food or water but she remembers one doctor letting her borrow his cell phone so she could call the baby sitter to make sure her infant daughter Ashley, was OK.

It took a couple of days to get the Pentagon cleaned up, she remembers, then she was moved over to Ground Zero in New York where she worked bagging and tagging for another couple of days.

Now she is a civilian and is 60 percent disabled from PTSD and 20 percent disabled from physical ailments, including hearing problems, back and neck pain and bilateral paresthesia — trembling hands.

Did she tell people she was Navajo when she was asked to tag and bag?

No, she said. She never asked for any special treatment for being Navajo. She didn’t want it. She wanted to do as she was told and help out any way she could. She just did her job, she said.

Back on the reservation

Wyn was in the Army for nine years before she went back to the Navajo Reservation in 2006. As soon as she got home, she got a job as an Emergency Room Health Technician at Crownpoint IHS. But she knew something was wrong. She couldn’t shake off 9/11. So she went to the VA clinic and was diagnosed with PTSD. Then came a number of medication trials and doctor visits to see what could help her get rid of her nightmares and emotional problems. As a result she missed some time at work.

But Wyn was an Army regular who knew if she wasn’t where she was supposed to be or where she was ordered to be, she better let somebody know where she was and what was happening.

But her manager, Doris Cleveland, the Crownpoint Emergency Room supervisor, was not happy, according to Wyn. She listed Wyn as AWOL when she was in for a doctor’s appointment, even though Wyn always supplied her supervisor with a doctor’s note. She insisted all her reasons for being gone from work were to see doctors about medications and she had doctor’s notes for every time she was gone. One time she was admitted into the VA hospital in Albuquerque and a relative notified Cleveland. The relative was told by Cleveland, “She has to tell me herself.”

Cleveland demanded to know why she was seeing a doctor so often. Wyn did not want to discuss her PTSD problems with her. She has problems discussing it with anyone. So she was terminated. Attendance was listed as the reason for her termination.

Jenny Notah, spokeswoman for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, said they do not comment on personnel matters. Wyn’s union representative, Julie Claymore of the Laborer’s International Union of North America, did not return phone calls. But co-worker Doris Pino, who was the timekeeper during Wyn’s employment, said she requested a transfer out of the emergency room department because Cleveland, who was her supervisor too, “treats employees like little kids.” She said the rules for sick time are that employees need a doctor’s slip if they are out for three days or more, but the supervisor doesn’t need additional information, just the written doctor’s slip. To take off one day of sick leave, they just need to tell their supervisor. Pino said Cleveland’s supervisor, Supervisor of Nurses Erma Marbut, stands up for Cleveland although “there’s been a lot of write-ups.”

Fighting with PTSD

Only one thing keeps Wyn from going crazy because of her PTSD. Work. Now she sits at home thinking about how she can get a job that will keep her busy and help her forget about 9/11. Her physical ailments don’t stop her from working, she said. It’s the NOT working that is getting to her.

Wyn has applied for an ER job at Gallup Indian Medical Center, but she said the firing in Crownpoint is making her ineligible for rehiring. It seems that her hours spent at Ground Zero and the Pentagon doing work most people would never do in a lifetime means nothing.

Confidential Information

Wyn says her supervisor insisted on knowing her confidential medical information to qualify for being off the job. But, just this week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Dillard’s Inc., saying the department store chain unlawfully discriminates against employees by demanding confidential medical information to qualify for sick leave.

The lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in San Diego says Dillard’s violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The case focused on a Dillard’s store in El Centro, Calif., but commission attorney Anna Park said Tuesday that the policy potentially hurts thousands of employees nationwide. Park says two employees in El Centro lost their jobs.

The commission is seeking unspecified damages and change of policy.

Wyn is not interested in any lawsuits — she just wants her job back.