Melissa Doi
Born
Melissa Cándida Doi[1]

(1969-09-01)September 1, 1969[2]
New York City, U.S.
DiedSeptember 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 32)
South Tower, World Trade Center,
New York City, U.S.
Cause of deathCollapse of 2 World Trade Center (September 11 attacks)
EducationNorthwestern University
OccupationSenior manager at IQ Financial Systems[3]

Melissa Cándida Doi (September 1, 1969 – September 11, 2001)[1] was an American senior manager[3] at IQ Financial Systems, who died in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[1][4][5][6]

Doi is known for the recording of a 9-1-1 call she made during her final moments inside the South Tower, as it was engulfed in flames.[7] Her emotional conversation with an emergency dispatcher was used during the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only criminal trial to result from the attacks.[8][9][10][11]

Early life and education

Melissa Cándida Doi was born on September 1, 1969[1] in the Bronx, New York,[12] to Evelyn Alderete.[13] Doi was an only child, and was raised by her single mother in East Harlem.[14] Doi's father was of Japanese ancestry, while her mother was of Puerto Rican descent.[15] Doi had a close relationship with her mother's family.[15]

In 1987, Doi graduated from the Spence School, an all-girl's school in Manhattan's Upper East Side, before attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she graduated in 1991 with a sociology degree. She was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority.[16] Doi was said to have "loved" Northwestern and was looking forward to her 10th-year class reunion shortly before she was killed.[16]

After graduation, Doi worked in public relations before moving in to the world of finance. In the late 1990s, she joined IQ Financial Systems, a banking software company largely owned by Deutsche Bank.[17][18] Doi had played a role in starting the company.[15] Doi was considered an attentive and understanding manager,[17][19] and journalist Scott Pelley said she was remembered as charismatic and attractive.[20]

Personal life

Doi's passions included music and painting.[16] A close friend described her as "incredibly physical".[3] At college, she had ambitions to become a ballet dancer,[13][21] but she enjoyed all kinds of dancing.[17] Doi was also an avid in-line skater, and was known to have purchased rollerblades for children in Throgg's Neck, who she taught to skate.[3]

Doi had a close relationship with her mother Evelyn, and they lived together at a condominium Doi purchased in Throgg's Neck, a traditionally German, Irish and Italian neighborhood in the Bronx.[22][13] Prior to moving to Throgg's Neck, they had lived together in a heavily Puerto Rican neighborhood in East Harlem.[23]

Doi was never married, and had no children at the time of her death.[24]

Death and 9-1-1 call recording

On August 16, 2006, the New York City Fire Department, acting under a court order, released the audiotapes of 1,631 calls to fire dispatchers, which included then 911 calls from trapped office workers, including Doi's.[4] The call, which lasts 24 minutes, was released in 2006. The recording was played during the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

Melissa Doi made her call from the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center South Tower at 9:17 a.m., on September 11, 2001. When the South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175 at 9:03 a.m., she and five other people were trapped in the impact zone on the 83rd floor, where IQ Financial Systems was located.[10] The plane entered the building two floors below Doi and her colleagues, and part of the right wing of the aircraft had ripped through the floor they were on.[25]

During the call, the operator tries to keep Doi calm and extract information from her. Doi complains of having trouble breathing, and the intense heat coming from the floor, and asks the operator if anyone is coming to rescue her.[26] At the time, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer and several other firefighters were rising toward Doi, having made it to the 78th floor.[27][28] Doi describes hearing voices, which she assumes are her rescuers, however it is unclear what she heard. According to Scott Pelley, it is plausible that she heard Chief Orio Palmer and the men who accompanied him in a nearby stairwell.[29]

During the crisis, Doi asks the dispatcher, "Can you stay on the line with me, please? I feel like I'm dying." The dispatcher urges Doi to keep breathing and praying, and reassures her she will be rescued.[4][30]

Near the end of the call, Doi spells out the last name of her mother and asks the dispatcher to set up a three-way call so that she can speak to her mother one last time. However, the dispatcher tells Doi that she is unable to make 3-way calls.[31]

As smoke and heat begin to overcome her, Doi gives the 911 operator her mother's name and phone number in hopes of passing on a last message: “Tell her...I love her with all my heart and soul, and that she was the best mother a person could ever have.”[32]

After 24+1⁄2 minutes, the call cuts off. At 9:58 a.m., the floors directly below Doi buckled, and the South Tower collapsed.[33] It took three years for Doi's remains to be found in the rubble.[24]

Analysis of 9-1-1 call

In 2013, an analysis of emergency phone calls made from the World Trade Center was published in the Omega journal. Author M. Sara Rosenthal, a bioethicist, focused heavily on Melissa Doi's experience.[34] The study concluded that emergency dispatchers had done a poor job of handling emergency phone calls placed by South Tower victims. Because the dispatcher untruthfuly insisted that Doi would be rescued, Doi's suffering was increased, and she became increasingly agitated by the ignorance and the dishonesty of the emergency dispatcher. Another 9/11 victim, Kevin Cosgrove, had a similar experience.[35]

Rosenthal notes that the established literature on end-of-life experiences has suggested that people who are dying want to be told the truth, and that they do not want to feel isolated or abandoned. Studies have shown that false reasurance can hinder the victim's ability to accept their fate, or to end their call with emergency dispatchers and contact loved ones, both of which are palliative. This leads trapped and dying people to “die deaths they deplore in locations they despise".[36]

Some 9/11 victims had qualitatively better death experiences, because they called their friends and family members, rather than emergency dispatchers.[37] Melissa Doi's emergency dispatcher was also clearly traumatized once it became obvious that she could not be saved. There is currently no standardized training for emergency dispatchers to handle end-of-life experiences, and very little attention has been paid to providing better training since 9/11. Most funding has gone to improving communications technology.[38]

Legacy

Doi's name is displayed on Panel S-46 at the South Pool the National September 11 Memorial.

The Spence School has established the Melissa Candida Doi '87 Scholarship Fund, in memory of Melissa Doi. The endowment provides a four-year scholarship to deserving Spence students.[39] Another scholarship, the Melissa Doi Memorial Scholarship was established and fully endowed by the Sigma chapter of the Delta Gamma fraternity, which Melissa had joined at Northwestern University. It has been awarded since 2007.[40]

Doi is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-46 of the National September 11 Memorial.[1] She is also memorialized at 10 other locations across the United States, including the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden.[41]

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum hosts several of Melissa Doi's personal belongings, including her artwork, and her rollerblades.[42] Oral histories relating to Doi are also stored there.[3]

See also


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Melissa Cándida Doi". National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Melissa Doi (Missing Person)". WorldTradeAftermath.com. September 11, 2001. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Summer Activities On View in the Memorial Exhibition Gallery". National September 11 Memorial & Museum. 2001-09-11. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  4. 1 2 3 Moore, Martha T. (August 16, 2006). "1,631 calls to dispatchers on 9/11 released". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  5. ↑ "List of Victims from Sept. 11, 2001". Fox News. September 11, 2001. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ "September 11: A Memorial". CNN. June 19, 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  7. ↑ Dwyer, Jim (August 17, 2006). "More Tapes From 9/11: 'They Have Exits in There?'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  8. ↑ "United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui: Criminal No. 01-455-A". United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. 2006. Archived from the original on January 25, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  9. ↑ Powell, Michael; Garcia, Michelle (August 17, 2006). "More Voices From 9/11: 'I'm Going to Die, Aren't I?'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. 1 2 "Melissa Doi". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  11. ↑ "A Call for Help". The Washington Post. August 16, 2006. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  12. ↑ Alderete, Evelyn. "Inside the Collection: Drawing". National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Archived from the original on May 17, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 "Melissa Doi Obituary". The Patriot-News. October 17, 2001. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  14. ↑ "AP News video interviews". YouTube. Retrieved 2023-11-09. Evelyn describes raising Melissa at 0:32 seconds in the video, note that her last name has been mis-spelled in the transcript included in the video's description.
  15. 1 2 3 Delgado, Jose (11 September 2021). "Reviven la tragedia de perder a los suyos". El Nuevo Dia – via PressReader. (translated from Spanish): "Doi Alderete, of Puerto Rican and Japanese descent, was one of the directors of the financial firm IQ Financial, which she had helped to found...She completed her bachelor's degree in Sociology at Northwestern University. Yet she worked primarily in public relations before approaching the field of finance."
  16. 1 2 3 Carpenter, Ellen; Murtaugh, Dan (September 21, 2001). "Obituaries - CAMPUS". The Daily Northwestern. Northwestern University. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. 1 2 3 "Melissa C. Doi: Dancing Through Life". Legacy.com. September 2001. Archived from the original on June 20, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  18. ↑ Mulligan, Thomas S. (2002-09-09). "Lessons From the Recovery". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  19. ↑ Mulligan 2002: "Melissa C. Doi, 32, whom one customer recalled admiringly as “a take-charge woman...An understanding boss, she once helped a subordinate through a difficult pregnancy by letting her work from home some days."
  20. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 39-40: "Doi brightened and lightened every meeting at IQ Financial Systems -- a firm creating software for Wall Street. Her complexion was light brown. Her hair was absolute black, pulled back in a tight, profesional style. But the feature no one could fail to notice was her illuminating smile that tickled her eyes to laughter."
  21. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 39-40: "Doi had dreamed of being a ballerina...Later, after graduating from Northwestern, she returned to her native New York City seeking more fortune than fame...
  22. ↑ Plambeck, Joseph (2012-03-22). "Fluid Reasons for a Constant Allure". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  23. ↑ LoPriore, Danny (20 September 2001). "Zero degrees of separation in aftermath of terror". HRVH Historical Newspapers. Bronxville Review Press and Reporter. p. 21. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  24. 1 2 "The 9/11 Decade: A Lost Cousin Remembered". Ossining Daily Voice. September 9, 2011. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  25. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 40: "The nose of flight 97 had hit two floors below her. Part of the right wing ripped in to Doi's 83rd floor.75"
  26. ↑ Adler, Margot (August 16, 2006). "After a Court Battle, More Sept. 11 Tapes Released". NPR. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  27. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 40-42: "... there was a firefighter rising toward Doi. Chief Orio Palmer...The only recording of his radio transmissions was lost in the labyrinthine bureacracy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. When the CD was discovered in 2002, the audio revealed that Palmer had climbed far higher than anyone had known...Palmer was now nine floors below Missy Doi and rising fast."
  28. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 43: "From his radio transmissions, we know Palmer reached the 78th floor....The nearest survivors to Palmer were likely five floors above him on 83--including Missy Doi and her five coworkers."
  29. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 44: "What Doi heard is unknown. But based on the records I have studied, it is plausible that Orio Palmer, Ron Bucca and perhaps some of the men of Ladder 15 continued climbing the intact Stairway A, fighting the fire as they rose."
  30. ↑ "9/11 victims heard on tapes". Associated Press. August 17, 2006. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023 – via Deseret News.
  31. ↑ Rich, Moore; Content, Contributed (2006-08-17). "'I FEEL LIKE I'M DYING'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  32. ↑ Zuckoff 2019, p. 484
  33. ↑ Pelley 2019, p. 45-46: "At 9:58 a.m. the exterior columns along the east wall buckled. The failure raced around the corners to the north and south faces. Two WTC tilted to the southeast and foundered on the floors where Orio Palmer was climbing towards Missy Doi.86"
  34. ↑ Rosenthal, M. Sara (2013). "The End-of-Life Experiences of 9/11 Civilians: Death and Dying in the World Trade Center". OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. SAGE Publications. 67 (4): 329–361. doi:10.2190/om.67.4.a. ISSN 0030-2228. PMID 24416875. S2CID 19556248.
  35. ↑ Rosenthal 2013, p. 351-352.
  36. ↑ Rosenthal 2013, p. 353: "In this respect, telling callers that firefighters are “on their way” or “in the building” (which was true) is not as accurate as “I don’t know how long it will take them to get up to you” or “I don’t know if they will get to you in time.” Christakis (1999) points out that false hope can contribute to greater suffering, and failure to prognosticate deaths accurately leads people to “die deaths they deplore in locations they despise” (Christakis, 1999, p. xiv). Kübler-Ross (1969) showed that the dying do not wish to be isolated, abandoned, or misled. Trapped and dying civilians in the WTC who could not escape still could make decisions about who to call and how to die. Such decisions were obfuscated by hopeful rather than truthful prognostication from emergency dispatchers."
  37. ↑ Rosenthal 2013, p. 356.
  38. ↑ Rosenthal 2013, p. 354-356.
  39. ↑ "Endowment". The Spence School.
  40. ↑ Scully, Whitney, ed. (Fall 2011). "In Memory". Anchora of Delta Gamma. Vol. 127, no. 3. Delta Gamma. p. 5.
  41. ↑ "Melissa C. Doi". Voices Center for Resilience. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  42. ↑ "Collections at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum". 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
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