On Sept. 11, 2001, St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, then run by the Sisters of Charity and the Archdiocese of New York, was the closest Level 1 trauma center to the World Trade Center on the day of the attacks, and the only hospital that received significant numbers of patients.  

“On 9/11 and in the days that followed, St. Vincent’s saw over 800 patients from the World Trade Center,” recounted Mark Ackermann, the hospital’s then-chief administrative officer and chief spokesperson. “Over 5,000 individuals visited its ‘family center’ looking for loved ones. Cardinal Egan visited the hospital several times.” 

In an interview with The Good Newsroom, Ackermann remembered the sheer volume of responses from the St. Vincent staff and its neighboring community. “The entire St. Vincent’s staff and volunteers, plus volunteers who joined us that day, responded wonderfully. The staff worked heroically for days and weeks,” he said. He reported that an additional 25,000 people surrounded St. Vincent’s to volunteer, bring sandwiches, and even organized themselves to give blood. 

Twenty-five years later, photos taken by St. Vincent’s Hospital photographers demonstrate how St. Vincent’s was truly the epicenter for the healthcare response to 9/11. 

Ackermann went on to be president of the St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center Foundation. From 2007 through 2009, he worked as executive director of the Office of the Papal Visit for the Archdiocese of New York. 

In 2015, he assisted the Holy See Mission in the planning and execution of Pope Francis’s visit to New York and coordinated the Time/Fortune Global Forum at the Vatican in 2016.