Woman Tells of "Lucky" Escape From Second Tower

Four weeks ago, when the second plane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center, Mary Jos was on the 78th floor of that building. She managed to climb down the stairs to safety minutes before the tower collapsed.

After suffering severe burns and undergoing surgery and skin grafts, Mary still considers herself one of the lucky ones.

Mary works for the tax department of New York State. Her office was on the 86th floor of the South Tower at the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, she was on the 78th floor, waiting for an elevator that would take her down and out of the building.

At that point, she and others knew that the first tower had been hit. Although the building was announcing that all was fine in the second tower, and no one thought that they were in imminent danger, people smelled fumes and decided to leave.

Suddenly, the second tower was hit as well. While she was never unconscious, Mary says that she is unsure what exactly happened. She does know that she was hit with debris and thrown to the floor, and that her watch and left shoe were blown off.

She told herself, "I'm not dying here," and began crawling and looking for a way out.

Mary says that one major problem for anyone trying to get out of the WTC towers was that few people knew where the stairs were. After all, how often would you walk up to your office if you worked on the 90th floor?

Luckily, one of Mary's co-workers took the elevator to the 78th floor and then walked up to the 86th floor every day. Mary had often seen her head for the stairs, so she had a general idea of where they were.

Mary says that she yelled out to anyone who could hear that she thought the stairs were back behind the elevator bank and that people should head that way. She began to crawl her way over and started to head down the stairs. She is unsure if, amid all the chaos, anyone else managed to follow her.

Mary was in a lot of pain and says she doesn't think she would have made it out without the help of a man named Eric, who she credits with helping her down 77 flights and out of the building on that fateful day.

Eric, who met Mary on the 77th floor, stayed with her the whole time as she slowly walked down the stairs. She says that he helped her stop focusing on her pain by asking her about herself and her family.

As Mary came out of the building she was put onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. The ambulance was two or three blocks away when the towers went down. Mary says it's as though her life was saved two times.

Mary had second- and third-degree burns on her back. She also had shrapnel damage in her one of her arms and lower calves and needed stitches in her head and on her feet. Luckily, her face is only slightly burned--"like a sunburn," she says. She was released from the hospital last Thursday, but her treatment is far from over. She will begin to meet with doctors to discuss physical therapy this week.

Mary and er husband, Dave Jos, had moved into an apartment on Rector Street last year so that Mary could be close to her job.

They have been allowed back to their downtown apartment since the attacks but have opted to stay in a hotel instead for the past several days.

It is not logical to be downtown right now, Dave says, because it is a "ghost town."

Later this week, they will move to a studio apartment on the Upper East Side. Dave says this will allow them to be closer to Mary's continuing doctors' appointments.

Mary has not been to their apartment or Ground Zero since September 11th.

©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed