What to Know
- A trailblazing doctor with the FDNY who survived the terror attacks on 9/11 has since dedicated her life to helping survivors — and she also happens to be the mother of "SNL" star Colin Jost
- Dr. Kerry Kelly worked for 37 years with the fire department, becoming the first woman to be named the FDNY's chief medical officer.
- Kelly now advises the 9/11 Museum and Memorial on health care for thousands who have gotten sick in the years since the attacks
A trailblazing doctor with the FDNY who survived the terror attacks on 9/11 has since dedicated her life to helping survivors — and she also happens to be the mother of a famous late-night comedian.
Dr. Kerry Kelly worked for 37 years with the fire department, becoming the first woman to be named the FDNY's chief medical officer.
The Staten Island native led the triage units on the city's most heartbreaking day.
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"We had just had a badly injured firefighter who had a mortal wound. So we put him on an ambulance and sent him to the ER," she recalled while retracing her steps near the spot where she was helping others.
There were fewer injured than anticipated, but there were thousands of lives lost, including 343 from the fire department.
"The chief said the building’s going, and I said 'What building?' and looked up and could see the South Tower coming down. And I thought, 'This is it,'" Kelly told NBC New York. "As it rained down, you were hit by pieces of debris. And I just remember thinking, 'I’m still alive.' … And then it was pitch dark, completely dark. And the only things you could see were pieces of white paper coming down. It was very eerie."
She survived, but soon worried about the air quality the first responders were breathing in.
Her own story remained out of the spotlight, until her famous son wrote about it in his book.
"He wrote that chapter because he felt I was not telling it," Kelly said of the book her son Colin Jost wrote, which introduced his mom's story to the world.
"Even more than that day, she was long-term heroic to people in the fire department," Jost said in an interview with Howard Stern.
She has not stopped thinking about the health of her fellow first responders who were near Ground Zero that day in the weeks and months that followed. Kelly now advises the 9/11 Museum and Memorial on health care for thousands who have gotten sick in the years since the attacks.
"I think the concept of never forget is important," she told News 4. "I always say 9/11 hasn’t ended."
She did say she has been fortunate in that her own health has been good so far.
"I go for monitoring. One of the important programs is monitoring because we always said we cannot change the exposures you had," said Kelly.
She also said she'd prefer the attention — and health care — remain strong for the men and women who worked selflessly to help.
"We see here…a reminder of those who sacrificed their own health for other people. And I would hope we would think of those people and what they did and also perhaps in our own lives be a little kinder and take care of people," Kelly said.
