The Hero (page 3 of 3)

A New Lease on Life

The years since have not been easy. McLoughlin spent the first six weeks in a medically induced coma, touch- and-go the whole way. So much of his lower body was crushed that he's had large sections of destroyed muscle tissue excised. He wears suspenders every day now because there's no longer enough flesh around his hips to keep his pants up.

His family life was upended as well. In the early days after 9/11, everything revolved around John's needs. He spent two and a half months in New York's Bellevue Hospital, seven weeks at a rehabilitation center in Rockland County, then three years as an outpatient, enduring grueling therapy sessions that left him so exhausted he could do little more than come home and sleep. For the first 18 months, he used a wheelchair, so the house had to be retrofitted. At times McLoughlin lost patience. "I'd get frustrated," he admits. "It's the simple little things in life that you can't do anymore. One of the kids leaves a sock on the floor and I can't get my wheelchair over it."

Defying doctors' expectations, he persevered, walking with two canes, then one, and now on his own thanks to braces on his lower legs. He can drive again. He still struggles with medical issues, but having retired from the Port Authority, he can spend his time coaching his kids' teams, serving as an assistant Scoutmaster and being a full-time dad.

McLoughlin hasn't had psychological counseling. "I haven't felt the need," he says. But he's received amazing support from friends, family, and total strangers. "Donna picks up on it when I'm starting to get down. She's right there to bring me out of it."

One summer day in 2004, the McLoughlins gathered in the backyard. The kids were in the pool, friends were visiting and the grill was on. "I looked around," McLoughlin explains, "and all of a sudden I realized things were kind of back to normal."

"It's a new kind of normal," Donna says. "That's what we're searching for. Our lives have changed forever."

"Seeing the planes crash into the buildings and the towers fall down still makes me uncomfortable," McLoughlin admits. "But when people ask if it's too soon for a film, many of us feel that we need to be reminded of the human suffering that went on that day. If we forget, we're allowing ourselves to be set up for another hit."

Out of a deeply felt duty to honor the dead, McLoughlin helped Nicolas Cage and the other actors in World Trade Center reconstruct what happened to him and his colleagues on 9/11. "We were the last to see many of the rescuers alive," McLoughlin says. "Only we can tell the story of their heroism. People have to understand that kind of bravery." What he doesn't seem to realize is that kind of bravery is also his own.

From Reader's Digest - September 2006

 

• Heroes
• • Sept. 11

• Rudy Giuliani: The Leader
• New York City's mayor Rudy Giuliani: "Courage is about managing fear."
• 
• Rudy Giuliani: Guts, Grace and Glory
• In the grim days after September 11, New York's mayor, Rudy Giuliani, kept hearing his father's words: "Courage is doing what you have to do even though you are afraid."
• 
• Rudy Giuliani Gives Away a Special Bride
• Five days after 9/11, Mayor Rudy Giuliani escorts the sister of a fallen firefighter down the aisle.
• 
• Lauren Manning: World Trade Center Survivor
• Badly burned in the World Trade Center, Lauren Manning had the will to live.
• 
• Lauren Manning 5 Years After September 11
• "I'm moving forward."
• 
• Who Financed 9/11?
• One family's quest to trace the money behind the murders.
• 
• Nicolas Cage, Star of World Trade Center
• Nicolas Cage takes on his roles with the same intensity he brings to his own life.
• 

• Be Inspired
• 10 Celebrities Who Give Back
• 7 Amazing Stories, $700,000 to Charity
• Virginia Cervasio: Making It Matter
• PLUS:
• Quiz: What's Your Celebrity Cause IQ?