"Sad But Proud"

Charles S. Liebowitz, DDS

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In all likelihood, by the time you read this, it still will not be known what, exactly, caused TWA Flight 800 to explode off our coast on July 17,1996. That is the job of other professionals. It befell dentists, however, to play a major role in the identification of the remains of the victims.

Who are these dentists? Where did they come from? Thanks to the efforts of Dr. B. Kalmen Friedman of Amityville, they came from Suffolk County, and most of them are members of the Suffolk County Dental Society. They are volunteers, one and all, who collectively gave 3000 hours of their time to this effort.

Dr. Friedman has been involved with Forensic Dentistry long before this disaster and long before 1991, when an Avianca crash in Nassau County gave him the idea of training dentists in Suffolk County to be able to respond to such a mass disaster. What has evolved over the past five years is the Suffolk Society of Forensic Odontologists. In speaking with and hearing from many members of this team since the tragedy, all had nothing but the highest praise for Dr. Friedman, for his efforts in their training and for his leadership during this ordeal, without which the incredible success of the dental team would not have been possible. Over 46% of the identifications of victims were made solely on dental evidence.

It is that much more disheartening, therefore, that the media failed to give this team the recognition it deserved. I saw the Suffolk County Chief Medical Examiner on television many times, and once or twice he may have mentioned "the dentists" and on one occasion he did refer to "a lady dentist" who impressed him with her ability for identify a person from a dental radiograph. In actuality, were it not for Dr. Friedman and his team, he might still be fighting off irate families and politicians demanding to know why all the identifications have not been made.

And then, of course, was the knowledge that one of our own was a victim of this disaster. Dr. Eric Holst and his wife, Virginia, lost their lives that evening...off the coast of Moriches, where, ironically, he maintained his practice.

When you live enough years and read enough accounts of tragedies that occur during that time, you tend to think of them in the abstract. But this particular incident wrenched it out of the abstract because of several connections I could make with Eric, although I did not know him personally. Eric was a professional colleague. Eric was a member of the Suffolk County Dental Society as I am a member. Eric practiced in Moriches, and I used to spend many pleasant hours sailing on Moriches Bay. And last December my wife and I flew on TWA 800. For me the tragedy is not an abstract event... no longer an impersonal story. I empathize very deeply with the families involved and wish them only solace and consolation. Parents are not supposed to bury children. What more can be said?

I guess it's a good time for us to count our blessings again, in case we haven't done it in a while. And when we do, remember what John F. Kennedy once said: "In the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

This article first appeared in "Suffolk Dentistry" (Bulletin of the Suffolk County Dental Society) in October. Charles Liebowitz, DDS, Editor.