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Some Metro-North Derailment Victims Released From Area Hospitals

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Area hospitals say some victims of Sunday's deadly Metro-North train derailment in the Bronx are being discharged Monday.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital said it has discharged 12 of the 18 patients it received. The hospital says the remaining six victims are receiving further treatment. Two of them are in critical condition.

It said the other 12 patients were treated and released on Sunday and earlier Monday.

Dr. David Listman said 12 patients were brought to St. Barnabas Hospital after Sunday's crash. Eight patients remain hospitalized as of Monday evening, hospital officials announced.

Some Metro-North Derailment Victims Released From Area Hospitals

Dr. Listman said the youngest patient there was a 14-year-old boy who was sent home on Sunday. The teen's father remains hospitalized.

Most of the victims were women in their 40s and 50s, he said. Their injuries range from spinal cord injuries to chest bruising.

As WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported, St. Barnabas, in the Tremont section of the Bronx, is a Level I Trauma Center.

Five of the 12 victims brought there required surgery. Emergency room physician Dr. Ernest Patty said the injuries were consistent with being thrown around a train.

"Broken bones, open fractures, bad contusions and some internal injuries. We have a person with a spinal cord injury as well, which is the most serious and the most critical case that we have," Dr. Patty told Diamond.

There was also a fair amount of post-traumatic stress.

"It's gonna be hard for a lot of these folks to get back on a train," said Dr. Patty.

"This Metro-North trip is something that's part of their regular day either to work or to school and I think it's going to be very difficult for people to get on that train again and try to be normal," Dr. Listman added.

Some Metro-North Derailment Victims Released From Area Hospitals

Rita Anya Nara, author of "The Anxious Traveler," said it's important for survivors of the derailment to get back on Metro-North as soon as possible to try to avoid long-term trauma from the incident.

"Not to recoil from this, not to become so scared that they're calling in sick or that they don't want to get on a train," she told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera.

Experts said plane and train crashes can create a lot of anxiety among travelers.

All of the patients brought to St. Barnabas are expected to recover, Diamond reported.

Two patients remained hospitalized at Jacobi Medical Center as of Monday evening, CBS 2's Alice Gainer reported.

Four people were killed and more than 60 were injured in the early morning crash when a train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central traveling on the Hudson line derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station.

All seven cars and the locomotive lurched off the rails and the lead car was only inches from the water.

Passenger Steven Ciccone, who helped a fellow passenger until first responders arrived, described the scene as "just complete chaos."

"It started to make a loud shifting noise, like with the tracks and the next thing I know two people from the other side of the train come flying over and fell on top of me," Ciccone  said. "I couldn't believe we were flipping over."

Passenger Arbee Guivesus said he was afraid the train might plunge into the Harlem River.

"I thought I was going to die, to be honest," he said. "Because we were near the water, so I thought if it falls down, we have no control. We're just praying."

Some passengers said it felt like the train was going faster as it neared the curve. They said they could hear and feel the other cars flipping over as the train knocked over trees before coming to a rest.

"It was going fast. What I felt was a derailment and I felt this noise, a bumpy, bumpy noise," passenger Denise Williams said.

She remained hospitalized Monday.

"I actually felt the car lift off the tracks. Everybody in the entire car was dazed, not a sound," passenger Dr. Joel Zaritsky said. "After the first 30 seconds, that's when you started to hear the screaming and the yelling....That's when I looked down and realized that my hand and arm was all blood and then you have to start saying to yourself 'whose blood is it?'"

"It didn't feel real at all," Zaritsky, who  injured his hand in the crash, added. "It was like a movie."

"I got thrown across back and forth and it came to, like, a halt, and there was just screaming," said passenger Ryan Kelly.

Within minutes, dozens of emergency crews arrived and carried passengers away on stretchers, some wearing neck braces. Others, bloodied and scratched, held ice packs to their heads.

At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Lisa Delgado said her cousin, Sharelle Coore, was being treated for a concussion.

"She just felt herself being flung," Delgado said. "She saw the woman in front of her go through the window."

Among those still hospitalized is Maria Herbert, who was working as an assistant conductor on the train. She is now being treated for fractured ribs, a broken collar-bone and head trauma.

"Thank God somebody stopped it," her husband Bill Herbert said. "I think God stopped it to tell you the truth."

Family members of passengers who were on board the Metro-North train can call 311 for more information or call 212-NEW-YORK (212-639-9675) from outside New York City. If using a TTY or Text Telephone, call 212-504-4115.

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(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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