Illnesses on the Rise Among 911 Rescuers

Ms. Pizzitola said the Law Department?s interpretation was a little vague. "It?s two years from the date of diagnosis," she insisted. "Who knew that we were going to see clusters of breathing problems, cancers and other strange illnesses? We had doctors in New Jersey, Long Island, upstate who were unfamiliar with what they saw. It took a long time for people to start comparing information notes and finding that the common factor was World Trade Center exposure."

?Must Update System?

Ms. Pizzitola credited the Mt. Sinai Screening Program for WTC Responders with being among the first medical groups to document and publish what was occurring among uniformed workers and others.

"To prove a Workers? Compensation claim, we have to have a link to 9-11," she acknowledged. "So did it take the medical community some time to really understand the scope of what we?re dealing with now? Yes, it did. Does that mean these people?s claims should be denied? I don?t think so, and I think it?s time to update the system."

William Dahl, 41, a senior Paramedic, is among the four percent of claimants who got rejected. He was one of many off-duty uniformed workers who showed up on 9-11 to search for survivors, and was buttigned to the World Trade Center ruins known as "The Pit" for three months straight.

He quickly developed the trademark WTC cough, a persistent affliction that brought up phlegmy gray matter from his lungs.

Breathing Compromised

Mr. Dahl, like many other EMS members, firefighters, sanitation workers, transit workers, and volunteers, has since been diagnosed with RADS ? Reactive Airway Disease Syndrome ? and esophageal reflux. His breathing capacity is severely limited. His personal pulmonologist said it?s indisputably related to 9-11. FDNY doctors, after seeing him for a year, eventually admitted he was "permanently partially disabled due to work-related illness."

Mr. Dahl is on medical leave and has applied for a disability pension Compensation claim wasn?t accepted by the city, however, and he?s currently arguing his case in front of an Administrative Law Judge.

"I?ve learned to keep a log of all the details," he said. "I?m on a dozen medications, but I can?t get prescriptions filled because the bills don?t get paid. I?m waiting for authorization on a CAT Scan and everything takes forever."

In January 2003, doctors found Synovial Sarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue cancer, in his throat. They operated a week later and successfully removed the growth. It?s a type of cancer, Mr. Dahl was informed, mostly seen in clusters among residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It wasn?t part of his claim to the city because his physician told him that unless other workers contracted the cancer, it couldn?t be linked to 9-11 exposure. Mr. Dahl used his private insurance to pay for the surgery.

?Thinking of My Family?

"For a long time I didn?t want to leave the job, because I love it. But I?m a trained medic, and I know what my chances are. I have to start thinking about my family," he said, referring to his wife and two daughters, ages 10 and 8. "All these nodules I have on my lungs that weren?t there before, you think I don?t know that in four or five years they?ll turn cancerous? And you know what the city?s going to tell me? ?Oh, you had throat cancer, so that?s a pre-existing condition.? It?s time to start looking out for myself."

John Vinciguerra, a Lieutenant EMT who was recently denied Workers? Compensation, is taking the same approach. He and his wife, currently pregnant with their fourth child, just put their home up for sale.

"We decided to move to a smaller place and try to cut expenses, because I?m out on medical leave while I appeal the compensation decision," he said. "But if the situation isn?t resolved by December, I?ll have to go off payroll. Once I?m off payroll 30 days, I lose my health benefits because I?m out of the system. And then I don?t know what we?ll do."

Mr. Vinciguerra was diagnosed with light asthma as a child, but had no serious respiratory problems until April this year. On 9-11 he was buttigned to a Brooklyn firehouse, where he cleaned out the various first responder rigs that came in with windows blown out, full of ash.

Familiar Symptoms

Later he was buttigned to search and rescue work and occasionally sent to the Staten Island landfill. He developed the signature cough, started spitting up material at night, and then in April was hospitalized with a serious lung infection. Since then he?s been unable to work, and has between one-quarter and one-half of his previous lung capacity.

He?s also been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, another common side-effect among 9-11 workers. His heart has to work so hard to get oxygen from the lungs that it?s given him high blood pressure, his pulmonologist told him.

"I never had high blood pressure before, but the FDNY doctors say they aren?t sure it?s from 9-11," he said. "I take seven different medications a day, including steroids, to help me breathe. I?ll never be able to work again, and at least all the doctors agree about that. I was told that this will only get worse ? and maybe if I?m lucky stay about the same."

Lobby Congress

Mr. Vinciguerra was one of several first responders who traveled to Washington July 21 to press Congress to restore $125 million in Federal aid to the city. The workers said it could be used to help 9-11 responders like Mr. Vinciguerra who have been denied Workers? Compensation and potentially have no source of income.

The list of ill workers grows every day, said Ms. Pizzitola, and union officials fear there?s more to come. But under existing Workers? Compensation law, there?s no way to circumvent the two-year statute of limitations on claims. For EMS workers who develop diseases with long latency periods ? mesothelioma, for example, usually takes anywhere from six to 20 years to manifest ? Workers? Compensation probably won?t be an option.

The illnesses appearing range from the diagnosable ? sarcoidosis, various types of cancer ? to the unidentifiable, many of which are simply labeled Reactive Airway Disease Syndrome by doctors.

Due to legal privacy constraints, Mr. Sweeney and fellow Law Department staff members are prohibited from discussing individual cases with the media. But they noted that every worker gets a chance to argue his or her case in front of an Administrative Law Judge, and then a Workers? Compensation panel comprised of members appointed by Governor Pataki. Ultimately, cases can be taken to the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Albany.

New Pension Help

Under the recently created 9-11 Disability Pension program, administered by NYCERS, EMS members denied Workers? Compensation could receive a Conference that gained pbuttage of the legislation. He encouraged them to start applying for aid as soon as the program is up and running, which he expected would be in a few months.

But at least one sick EMT worker would be ineligible for that pension because she didn?t accrue the requisite 40 hours at Ground Zero. Lynette Colbert, 48, diagnosed with sarcoidosis, has already been denied an FDNY line-of-duty pension and Workers? Compensation. She?s living off her personal disability insurance while on medical leave.

When her medical leave runs out, she?ll either have to go back to work or risk going without pay, which could drop her out of the health care system after 30 days.

"It?s hard, you know, because I have seven grandchildren and the medications and the disease, they change you a lot. I get real scatterbrained and short-tempered, and that?s not really who I am," she said. "All those years that I cared for people with no strings attached, because I loved this job, and now I can?t get help from the city. I?m on the outside looking in. Why can?t those people who have the power just check ?Yes? on their forms and let me go see the doctor?"

Jonathan Bennett, Public Affairs Director New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health 275 7th Avenue, 8th floor, New York NY 10001 jbennett at nycosh.org Tel: 212-627-3900 ext. 14 Fax: 212-627-9812

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