Trauma Even After Happy Ending
As the survivors of US Airways flight 1549 celebrated today the first anniversary of the miracle landing on the Hudson River, it may seem as if it would be an occasion for unrestrained joy. After all, everybody on board that plane beat extremely long odds to survive the watery crash landing, one of the few successful such landings in the history of airline aviation. Captain Sullenberger and his crew have become internationally renowned for what they accomplished. One man and woman who were on the plane have even fallen in love after getting to know each other at earlier reunion gatherings. They all cheated death! Happy happy, joy joy… right?
Well, not exactly. When our reporter Emily Frances interviewed some of the passengers and crew at the premiere of a documentary on the Hudson landing several weeks ago, I was completely taken aback to hear many of the survivors talk of their ongoing bouts post-traumatic stress, depression, and phobias set in motion by what they’d been through. Here’s an article worth checking out:
“Months after the crash, Doreen Welsh had a panic attack when she inhaled a little water in the shower. Anastasia Sosa no longer finds swimming fun - it feels too much like survival training. And Jorge Morgado can't bring himself to get back on a plane.
“A year after the 155 people aboard crippled US Airways Flight 1549 survived a splash-landing on the frigid Hudson River, some are suffering the psychological aftereffects of their terrifying descent and harrowing evacuation.”
If you’re like me, you’d like to think—you might even assume-- that every person who was on board that plane gets out of bed each day with a big smile on their face, just happy to be alive, when, according to all reasonable expectations, they shouldn’t be. But I’ve learned from reading about what these people have been through, is that it doesn’t work that way. Trauma is trauma, even if people survive it. It’s a fascinating lesson in how the brain processes fear, in both the short and the long term. And I expect it’s something psychologists will be studying for years to come.
Leave me your thoughts: are you surprised that so many people who lived through the Hudson landing are still haunted by fears to this day? If it was you on the plane, do you think you’d still be wrestling with post-traumatic stress?
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Comments: 9
Jim, on the previous BLOG, my intention was not to send the response 11 times. I was having difficulty getting it to go through. One time reading it will do...lol
Anyway, difficult to believe it has been one year since the "Miracle On The Hudson."
Intriguing that many survivors has bouts of post traumatic stress, depression and phobia.
Then, when you step back and think of what these passengers went through one year ago today, maybe this is not so unusual.
Heck, I'm not surprised that people are going through trauma, some war veterans who nearly get hit by stray bullets have PTSD. If I was on that plane, I'd probably want to drive or take a boat to go places, after realizing my life could've ended that day.
Heck, I'm not surprised that people are going through trauma, some war veterans who nearly get hit by stray bullets have PTSD. If I was on that plane, I'd probably want to drive or take a boat to go places, after realizing my life could've ended that day.
As a 'believer', I would say that if I were one of the survivors, God has left me here on earth for a purpose. And perhaps my fears would be lessened.
Well said, Rhoda
God didn't promise the sky will always be blue, but He promised he is always with us, and let us use what we experienced to help others.
Many people with PTSD are believers, but belief in a higher power doesn't necessarily keep your unconscious mind from experiencing fear and stress. Saying that if people believed they would not feel the effects of trauma suggests that those who suffer do so because they do not believe, that their will to believe is lacking. It blames the suffering on the sufferer. It is akin to the idea that a good attitude will keep you from dying from cancer.
I personally wouldn't believe those who said they were NOT having problems. I especially wonder how those were were at the sinking back of the plane, and the stewardess who was injured, are doing. I think people often more interested in the happy ending story part then in how individuals are really feeling.
I was in a plane that experienced 2 severe drops in altitude, the stewardess hit her head on the ceiling. It was about a year and a half after 9/11 and after a lifetime of flying, I'm now afraid to fly. I have flown since, but I can't seem to shake the fear of turbulence.
"Believers" always amuse me... Yes, Rhoda and KC, "god" saved those people on US Airways Flight 1549, but was probably too busy picking his butt on 9/11, or during the Holocaust, or during the earthquake in Haiti, or during the bubonic plagues in the Middle Ages which wiped out at least 30% of Europe's population (some estimates put the figure as high as 60%), or during the sinking of the Titanic, or... Well, you get the idea.
You attribute the survival of these passengers to "god;" I say it's all just a matter of luck -- most plane crashes end in disaster, but, with so many flights, car crashes, earthquakes, and other forms of disasters, natural or otherwise, there are bound to be cases, here and there, where people seem to "miraculously" survive.
So quit your silliness!
Oops, forgot to sign my name...
PS: kc, would you by any chance happen to be kc lang, famous singer?