By Oliver BroudyFrom the spectacular blue
sky, a pale-pink shirt cuff
flutters down next to Sarah
Bunting. As it drops to
the footpath she tries
to compose her thoughts.
Then she hears a cavernous
groan. It is the sound of
a skyscraper dying. The
massive white dust cloud
billows toward her.
Sarah stood five blocks
from Ground Zero on
September 11 when the
Towers fell. She wasn’t a first
responder or a volunteer who
came to help. She didn’t live
in NYC. She wasn’t physically
harmed and didn’t know
anyone who was. She was just
a 28-year-old web producer
who was passing by.
And yet, in the months and
years that followed, she’d lose
her train of thought when
planes flew overhead, jump
at trucks clanking over metal
plates and, for no obvious
reason, find herself feeling
scattered. Even today she
can’t bring herself to get rid
of the sediment-encrusted
black heels that tortured her
feet as she trudged uptown
that long-ago morning. It felt
wrong to wash them, as if all
it took to cleanse trauma from
her life was a damp cloth. She
couldn’t throw them away
either. In the end, she stashed
them in a closet, and like so
much else from that day, they
have burdened her ever since.Bystanders to a
terrifying event –
a violent assault,
a car crash, an
explosion – are
at risk of post-
traumatic stress
symptoms. Even
viewing such
events on TV or
social media can
put you at risk.
Since we’re privy
to more of this
nowadays (yep,
terrorist attacks),
WH examines how
to minimise the
mental suffering
FEBRUARY 2017 womenshealth.com.au 105special report