- Born
- On September 11, 2001, Lauren Manning, a managing director and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, arrived at Tower One of the World Trade Center. As she entered the lobby, the first plane was crashed into the tower. The jet fuel explosion found a direct path to the lobby and a wall of exploded from the elevator banks, burning Manning over more than 80 percent of her body. She ran from the building, engulfed in flames. Overwhelmed by agonizing pain, she made the decision to live, to return to her 10 month old son. When she reached the hospital, she was given barely more than a 10 percent chance of survival. She was unconscious for seven weeks as she battled dire infections, her lungs damaged from smoke and fuel inhalation, while undergoing dozens of surgeries. Upon waking she could barely move her limbs. On a ventilator for more than two months, she could not walk or eat on her own. She needed to relearn how to speak, and how to walk; through physical therapy she was able to regain use of her hands. Her long, slow recovery became a symbol for a nation still reeling from the terrorist attacks. In tribute to more than 658 of her coworkers at Cantor Fitzgerald who were killed, Manning battled to rebuild her life, in a decade long recovery that she recounts in her memoir, "Unmeasured Strength," published in September 2011.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseGreg Manning(March 8, 2000 - present) (2 children)
- Mother, with Greg Manning, of two sons.
- A survivor of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York City.
- I would say that having been presented with the terrible tragedy and trauma of the murdering of so many thousands of people that I, as a survivor, among the very few of us that made it out, feel privileged to have life and I have sought to make the most of every moment I have. It's been a long, tough haul, and I've put as much work into it as necessary to get the job done.
- I chose to make it. I'm not going to conduct my life in the confines of what these people did to me and my colleagues.
- It's now been a decade since that day, and sometimes I look back and wonder, Have I accomplished anything of note or great worth? People have called me a hero, but I can only say that I did what I needed to do. I was not the agent of my own adversity. Pain and suffering were imposed on me; they invaded and overwhelmed my body and threatened to crush my soul. Once I opened my eyes after a long climb out of the darkness, I knew that every day, I had a choice. Every day I had to fully commit to outlasting my enemies- those cowards who covered their faces from the light and screamed toward us in their metal daggers. Would I let their act of terror beat me into submission? Would I let them win? Would I let them steal my will to live, having failed to extinguish my life itself? Every day, I had to reach deep inside and find an as yet unmeasured strength that made it possible to carry on.
- Every day you have a choice. Make it count.
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