Oral Patrick, a Jamaican-born consultant and former World Trade Center employee, recounts his remarkable story of survival and recovery in his new book, Restorative Healing Begins With Rest: Overcoming Breathing Difficulties and PTSD After 9/11 Exposure.
Co-authored with his daughter Deborah Patrick, the book chronicles Patrick’s escape from the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and his subsequent journey to health.
Patrick, who was working as a Computer Systems Engineer on the 83rd floor of One World Trade Center, faced an unexpected turn of fate when he was laid off on September 10, 2001. “I survived 9/11 not once, but twice. The first time by being fired from my job. The second time by recovering after getting sick at the site of that job,” Patrick explains in his book.
The narrative details Patrick’s volunteer work at Ground Zero, where he helped in the aftermath of the attacks. Despite narrowly avoiding death by being fired a day before the attacks, Patrick soon found himself grappling with severe health issues as a result of his exposure to the site’s toxic environment. He developed respiratory problems, skin rashes, and became prediabetic, struggling with conventional treatments.
Born in Old Harbor, Jamaica, Patrick’s educational journey took him from Marlie Mount Primary and Vere Technical High School to The University of the West Indies in Kingston, where he earned a degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1987. Shortly after graduating, Patrick and his family moved to the USA in search of better opportunities, driven by his parents’ belief in a brighter future in America.
On September 11, 2001, Patrick was on his way to Manhattan for job hunting when he witnessed the Twin Towers being attacked. “Shortly after 8 am I was on the New Jersey Turnpike, and I glanced towards the Twin Towers in the distance, thinking of how I could be at work there right now if I hadn’t been fired the day before,” he recalls. As he watched the towers collapse on live TV, he was overwhelmed and stunned.
Motivated by a desire to help, Patrick returned to the site as an unregistered volunteer, assisting rescue workers and families of victims. His repeated exposure to the site’s harmful conditions led to worsening health issues, prompting him to explore natural healing methods. “After consulting with several natural health practitioners, I learnt that almost any device will work again if you unplug it for awhile and then reboot it—even our bodies,” Patrick says. He found that rest, both physical and mental, was essential for his recovery.
Patrick’s holistic approach to healing—emphasizing rest for the body, mind, and spirit—resulted in significant improvements in his health. He eventually started his own business, Patrick Internet Computer Systems, which provided cyber security consulting to major companies, and a real estate investment company to meet the post-9/11 demand for housing. Additionally, he became a pastor at Word Of Wisdom Church in Teaneck, New Jersey, sharing his message of healing with others.
In Restorative Healing Begins With Rest, Patrick hopes to inspire readers to understand and harness their body’s inherent ability to heal. “I hope the takeaway from the book will be that readers gain the understanding of the body’s power to heal itself of degenerative and other diseases when we remove the interfering and agitating elements by resting,” he states.
The book is published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, and is available in hardcover, paperback, and audio formats through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible, as well as on Kindle.
