Calls for city to reexamine some post '9/11' deaths
Push came after first death is linked to toxic dust at Ground Zero

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se..._11&id=5337691

By Lisa Colagrossi

(New York -WABC, May 25, 2007) - There is renewed demand to reexamine the medical records in the deaths of at least eight responders at Ground Zero on "9/11". The city medical examiner's decision to link the toxic dust cloud to the death of a woman may be just the first step.

Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi is live in Lower Manhattan with the story.

Activists, politicians and those suffering from 9/11 illnesses will gather at Ground Zero for a rally at 11:30 a.m. Their goal is to get the victim's compensation fund to reopen.

"About a month ago they had to rush me to the hospital because I couldn't breathe," said Marvin Bethea,

Marvin Bethea got a chestful of that 9/11 smoke. The cloud from more than a million tons of pulverized concrete, computers, glass, asbestos, lead and toxic chemicals.

He's gone from an athlete, to two pills a day, to 15 medications.

"Now that's very frustrating. My career got cut short..the fact that I cannot go up three flights of stairs right now. I'm 47 years old," said Bethea.

Bethea, and those organizing today's gathering, want the government to reopen the victim's compensation fund.

They want the money to be available to bystanders and first responders, still getting sick and sometimes dying from exposure to that toxic cloud.

"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. We did what we were supposed to do and yet we have to fight for everything. It's just simply not right.

The call for a reexamination of old cases, got a big push when the city medical examiner agreed this week that attorney Felicia Dunn-Jones died from lung disease brought on by her exposure to the plume of dust and smoke on 9/11.

"The fact that so many are sick now and the government for the longest has been in denial is just simply not right," said Bethea.

The family of Felicia Dunn-Jones did receive money from the 9/11 victim's compensation fund, but many people have not.