As the United States (US) prepares to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a Jamaican man who says he survived 9/11 twice has now published a book recounting his experiences of the world-changing event.
“I survived 9/11 not once, but twice. The first time because I lost my job. The second time because I was recovering from an illness at work.”
That’s what Jamaican-born consultant, engineer and former World Trade Center employee Oral Patrick says in his book, telling his story of how he escaped death, became ill and finally recovered. Restorative Healing Begins with Rest – Overcoming Breathing Difficulty and PTSD After the Events of September 11Co-author of the book is his daughter Deborah Patrick.
It chronicles Patrick’s struggle with various ailments following his months of volunteer work in the ruins of the World Trade Center site, his former workplace. On September 10, 2001, less than 24 hours before the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, he escaped possible death by being fired.
In Restorative healing begins with restHe shares methods that incorporate rest of mind, body and spirit, which have proven successful in his full recovery after over a year of debilitating illness.
Better life
Born in Old Harbour, St Catherine into a large family of eight siblings, Patrick attended Marlie Mount Primary School and then Vere Technical High School. He then attended the University of the West Indies in Mona, St Andrew where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1987.
Immediately after graduating, his entire family immigrated to the United States to pursue the American dream because his parents “thought we would have a better life in the United States.”
Despite homesickness, racism and problems on the job market, Patrick said he gradually got used to his new country and never felt unsafe in the USA. The thought of a serious attack on the country’s largest city never crossed his mind.
But that was all about to change.
On September 10, 2001, Patrick – who was now living in New Jersey – had been employed for three months as a computer systems engineer at Lava Trading Incorporated on the 83rd floor of One World Trade Center.
He recalls: “My manager called me into the conference room shortly after 9 a.m. He said the company was in the process of making layoffs and I was the first to go. He asked me to sign my resignation letter and told security to escort me to my desk so I could collect my personal belongings. I packed my things and gathered up my courage to say goodbye to the team as I left the office.”
Although it was disappointing to tell his family the news of his firing – he had since married his wife, Angella, and was the father of three young children – he armed himself with resumes to begin his job search the next day, September 11. He was driving his car to Manhattan when the unthinkable happened.
Twin Towers
“Just after 8 a.m., I was on the New Jersey Turnpike looking off into the distance at the Twin Towers, thinking about how I might be working there now if I hadn’t been fired the day before. Then when I looked again, I saw strange smoke coming out of the towers. So I turned my car radio to a local news station to find out what was going on.”
He learned that the assumption at the time that a small plane had flown into the first tower was wrong.
Traffic was then diverted and unable to proceed further into the city, he parked and went to a nearby busy delicatessen to watch the events on television. He was stunned to see the second plane hit shortly after. When the first tower collapsed live on television and before his eyes just after 9am, he fell to his knees, unable to process what he had just seen. When the second tower collapsed, he could only sit in the delicatessen in stunned silence for several hours before going home later that day.
Remarkably, within a week he found himself back at the scene of the tragedy, where his former workplace was nothing but a huge pile of rubble.
“I felt obligated to go back there to help and check on my former colleagues and other friends who worked nearby. I was relieved to later learn that the manager who had fired me the day before had survived. I then became one of the unregistered volunteers who simply handed water to rescue workers or victims’ families as they left the site to search for survivors or loved ones. I had seen on the news many of them gathering in the area, so I assumed it was safe to go there.”
It wasn’t like that.
Noticed changes
After just a short time of visiting the site several times a week, Patrick began to notice changes in his vision, breathing and skin tone. He was suffering from rashes and respiratory problems, was overweight and had prediabetes. As the months went by, he realized that conventional medical methods were not relieving his symptoms, but were actually making them worse. It was at this time that he immersed himself in the world of natural medicine and began to study wellness and overcoming chronic disease in depth.
“After consulting several naturopaths, I learned that almost any device will work again if you unplug it for a while and then restart it – even our bodies. So I decided to put the rest to the test.”
In one pivotal week, after being exhausted and lying in bed with little to no food or exercise, Patrick noticed significant changes. His mood, vision, hearing, appearance, and mental clarity had improved dramatically. His joints, which had previously been arthritic, were pain-free and more flexible when he moved. Whereas at the time he struggled with brain fog and lack of mental clarity for extended periods of time while working on a writing project, he was now able to complete it in a matter of hours in a day.
After being unemployed and in financial difficulties during his illness, over the next two years he began to radically turn his life around by starting his own company – Patrick Internet Computer Systems.
As a computer cybersecurity company, it provided consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Citibank, and the U.S. Navy. He also founded a real estate investment company to meet the post-9/11 need for out-of-town housing and began spreading his message of physical and spiritual healing as pastor of the Word Of Wisdom Church (WOW) in his community of Teaneck, New Jersey.
Power to heal
He was inspired to write Restorative healing begins with rest of others with whom he shared his healing methods and who, he claims, achieved similar life-changing results.
“I hope that readers will understand from this book how the body can heal itself from degenerative and other diseases if we switch off the disturbing and stressful elements through rest. This is much like turning off a computer and letting it rest for a few seconds before restarting it to recover from a software error.”
He claims that it was rest alone, in the broadest sense of the trinity of body, mind and spirit, that brought him back to health, stressing that “rest is not just sleep. Resting the body involves eliminating junk food from our diet as well as periodic fasting so that the life force normally used for digestion is instead used for repairing the body. Resting the mind requires meditation, which reduces and eliminates stress hormones like cortisol, allowing the body to return to balance. Resting the soul is about authentic and complete self-acceptance, with full gratitude for who and what you are in your entirety, which makes you calmer and more centered. The book goes into great detail about these and many other things.”
Patrick continued to recall the events of that sad day, saying, “Sadly, in addition to those who perished in the buildings on the day the planes hit, many more emergency workers and 9/11 volunteers later died from respiratory, skin and digestive cancers caused by the toxins they were exposed to at the scene. I therefore feel doubly lucky to still be alive after being so close to everything that happened, and I am excited to share my book and what I have learned to help others.”
