I worked the overnight shift (8 PM to 8 AM) in the emergency room last night, came home, and then was just about to dive under the covers when I decided to turn on the TV quickly to see what TiVo had recorded overnight. That’s when I noticed that every single station had pictures of a huge plume of smoke rising from Far Rockaway, and I learned that there had been another airplane tragedy in New York. So far, this one doesn’t seem to have been a result of terrorism (notwithstanding the incredible speculation in the weblog world), but it did paralyze New York City for a little while. And it’s sure to paralyze my hospital’s community even more; we’re situated smack in the middle of the largest Dominican population outside of the Dominican Republic, and it’s hard for me to imagine that there weren’t people on that plane near and dear to my patient’s lives, or that at least one of my actual patients didn’t perish today. (NY1 has more from-the-scene images.)