Joshua Bright
The Intern Who Became a Medical Student
A Decade Later, the Worst Tragedy in New York City’s History Inspires a Dream
As New York City and the nation were reeling
in the aftermath of 9/11, Nicole Wimberger, a
Wisconsin native working as an administrative
intern at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner
(OCME) of the City of New York, wondered
how she could help. With the subway at a
standstill, she started walking to the OCME’s
office at 30th Street and First Avenue from her
apartment near LaGuardia Airport. But with
the city in lockdown, she only made it to the
Queensboro Bridge before being forced to turn
back. The next day, Wimberger arrived at work
before her boss, ready to pitch in.
Two months later, after the crash of
American Airlines flight 587 in Queens,
Wimberger was tapped to assist the director of
investigations, who coordinated the agency’s
response to these disasters. At first, she helped
catalogue and store the personal effects of the
victims of both tragedies. Then, in April 2002,
she was hired as assistant director of identifications. “I helped bring people back to their families,” says Wimberger. She also worked with
the OCME’s forensic anthropologist, receiving
a crash course in human anatomy as each of
the remains was painstakingly identified and
catalogued for further examination. “You don’t
have time to stop and think,” she recalls of
the heart-wrenching work. “There are names
and stories I will never forget,” she says. “I will
forever be a different person because of these
people.”
The experience changed Wimberger in
another way, too. “I realized,” she says, “that I
was right in the middle of what I was supposed
to be doing: medicine. Seeing the integrity of
the people around me and the importance of
what they were doing made me want to have
that kind of impact as well.” Encouraged by
Charles Hirsch, MD, chief medical examiner, professor and chair of N YU Langone’s
Department of Forensic Medicine, and professor of pathology, Wimberger began taking the
courses she needed to apply to medical school,
adjusting her responsibilities and hours to
accommodate her class schedule. Fittingly, she
was at work when her acceptance letter arrived
from N YU School of Medicine.
At 35, Wimberger is one of the oldest students in the class of 2013, and one of the oldest
ever admitted to the school. As an undergraduate at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota,
she considered a career in journalism, but during a criminal justice course, she set her sights
on the FBI. After earning a master’s degree
in criminal justice from St. Cloud in 1999, she
entered a PhD program at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, where she saw the posting for
the internship at the OCME.
Now that she’s enrolled in medical school
and completing her dissertation at John Jay,
Wimberger’s stint at the OCME has ended, but
her ties haven’t. “I have this family next door
willing to help me whenever I need it. If I had
figured out what I wanted to do at a younger
age, I would not have gotten to know the
people I did. Despite the challenges that may
come with not following a traditional career
path, I wouldn’t trade any of my experiences.”
“The only downside to having Nicole
work as a full-time member of our staff,” says
Dr. Hirsch, “was the humbling challenge to do
our job as well as she did hers. I always have
known that she has the ability and determination to achieve her goals, and I am proud of her
accomplishments. I am confident that Nicole
will reflect great credit on N YU Langone, as
she has on the OCME.”
