Lauren Manning (born Lauren Grace-Forshay Pritchard; 1961) is an American author, entrepreneur, and businesswoman. One of the most severely injured survivors of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, she spent over six months in the hospital during her initial recovery from 82.5% total body burn injuries. Her injuries and recovery were widely documented by national and international press, including extensively by The New York Times. Manning's story has been the subject of two books, including Manning's New York Times best-selling memoir Unmeasured Strength, which was published in 2011 by Henry Holt and Company.
Since the publication of her book, Manning's story has continued to receive widespread press coverage, and in 2013 President Barack Obama went so far as to cite Manning as a personification of American resilience.
Biography
Early life and career
Lauren Pritchard Manning was born in 1961 in Essex County, New Jersey and was raised in St. Simons, Georgia. Manning graduated from Glynn Academy in 1979, and went on to earn a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Fordham University in 1987. She began her career at Lehman Brothers in 1985, and in 1995 she became a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York City-based bond-trading firm. In 2000 she was appointed managing director of its global market data division. Manning is a member of the board of directors of Sanctuary for Families, a "service provider and advocate for survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking and related forms of gender violence."
Surviving 9/11 attacks (2001)
On September 11, 2001, Manning left her home and headed for the World Trade Center's North Tower, where she was a senior executive at Cantor Fitzgerald with an office on the 105th floor. As she entered through the glass doors of the North Tower's West Street entrance, the first plane crashed into the 96th floor, cutting through elevator shafts that ran the full height of the building and giving the explosive fires a direct path to the first floor lobby. Moments later, as she turned towards the elevators that would take her up to her office, a wall of fire from the jet fuel explosion blasted from the elevator shafts, enveloping Manning and setting her aflame. Manning fought the backdraft and pushed out through the building doors and onto the sidewalk outside. She ran across the six lanes of West Street before stopping to drop and roll on a strip of grass to extinguish the flames, where she was assisted by a good Samaritan.
Manning remained conscious despite her injuries and watched as the second plane was crashed into the South Tower. Having been at the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing, Manning recognized that this was another terrorist attack. She recollects that she "made the decision in those moments to live." She was forced to re-cross the street to board an ambulance, which had pulled up to the burning building approximately 40 minutes after the attacks began. The ambulance did not depart until approximately ten minutes before South Tower collapsed. Manning had suffered an 82.5 percent total body surface area (TBSA) burn, with 75 percent of those burns third degree.
Recovery (2001–2002) Initially Manning was taken to the intensive care unit at St. Vincent's Hospital. She remained conscious until 2 pm, when she was sedated at the instruction of two burn nurses who had volunteered off the street to assist in the care of patients. At 5 pm, Manning was transferred to the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Staff estimated her chance of survival at about 10 to 15 percent upon arrival, later falling to single digits.