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Thread: A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

  1. #311
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    Asthma Rates High Among 9/11 Workers

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...082700788.html

    By DEVLIN BARRETT
    The Associated Press
    Monday, August 27, 2007; 1:36 PM

    WASHINGTON -- A new survey of Sept. 11-related illnesses has found an alarming increase in asthma _ 12 times higher than normal _ among those who toiled on the toxic debris piles of ground zero.

    The study was released Monday by the New York City Department of Health, based on responses gathered by the World Trade Center Health Registry.

    The data show 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers in the registry reported developing asthma after working at the site _ more than 12 times the expected figure for adults over a similar time period.

    "The risk was significantly elevated for fire and rescue workers, medical workers, and police and military personnel compared to volunteers," according to the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

    Firefighters, police officers, construction workers and volunteers swarmed to the site immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. While most of them were from New York, hundreds or more came from across the country to help in the moment of national crisis.

    Overall, workers who arrived at the disaster site on the day of the attacks and stayed more than 90 days reported the highest rate of new asthma _ 7 percent. Volunteers accounted for almost one-third of those responding to the survey; firefighters accounted for about 14 percent.

    Workers who reported wearing protective respirators on Sept. 11 and 12, when the contamination was at its worst, had lower risk of developing adult-onset asthma, the study found.

    "These findings reflect the critical importance of getting appropriate respiratory protection to all workers as quickly as possible during a disaster, and making every effort to make sure workers wear them at all times," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the city's health commissioner.

    The results buttress previous research that found 70 percent of those who worked at ground zero later suffered lung problems. The doctors who conducted that study said they expect thousands to need treatment for 9/11 illnesses, and New York politicians, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have pushed for a $1.9 billion program to treat those workers.

    The authors of the new asthma study cautioned the findings are based on self-reporting by those answering their survey questions, so they cannot verify diagnoses or rule out over-reporting by those who responded.

    The authors also said there is little pre-existing data on the prevalence of asthma among first responders _ but separate research published by Swiss doctors in March in the medical journal Chest found asthma was "considerably underdiagnosed in firefighters."

    The World Trade Center Health Registry was launched in 2003 to track the long-term health effects of ground zero exposure to workers, volunteers, and residents.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #312
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    WTC responder spearheds three-way kidney transplant

    http://www.newsday.com/news/local/lo...rail_headlines


    John Feal, a Nesconset resident and former demolition expert, has dedicated his life to helping others after losing half his foot working at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of 9/11.

    BY STACEY ALTHERR | stacey.altherr@newsday.com
    August 30, 2007

    In January, John Feal was ready to give his kidney to a perfect stranger. But they weren't a good match.

    That bad news led to a series of events that will culminate this morning in a Manhattan hospital and potentially save not one life, but three.

    The daisy chain started by Feal includes six surgeons who will conduct three simultaneous kidney transplants at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

    Feal, 40, of Nesconset, said he will give his kidney to a recipient, whose spouse will give a kidney to a second recipient, whose spouse will give a kidney to Paul Grossfeld. Grossfeld, 56, from New Jersey, was the intended recipient of Feal's kidney, but Feal was a better match for someone else. So the chain, called paired donation, was established.

    "I feel great," Feal said Wednesday. "I feel like I've been training for a prizefight."

    There were 17,090 kidney transplants in the nation last year, according to the National Kidney Foundation, which does not tally the number of paired donations. But a foundation representative said that procedure is relatively new.

    NewYork-Presbyterian confirmed the operations were scheduled to take place but would not identify any of the patients, citing strict patient confidentiality laws.

    Feal heads the Fealgood Foundation, an organization that advocates for and gives financial assistance to 9/11 responders and workers who have fallen ill since working at Ground Zero.

    Grossfeld, a former Queens resident, found Feal's Web site last year while desperately searching for a donor. A former volunteer paramedic in North Massapequa who has suffered from kidney disease and diabetes for years, Grossfeld e-mail- ed Feal to ask whether he could post an appeal for a kidney to Feal's Web site. He soon got a call back from Feal saying, "You got yourself a kidney."

    Grossfeld, appreciative of all Feal has done, said Wednesday, "It's been a rough road."

    "I'm ready, though," Grossfeld said. "I'm taking my last dialysis treatment right now."

    Feal, who was a consultant for Michael Moore's health-care documentary film "Sicko," began his efforts because of his own pain. Seven days after the terrorist attacks, Feal was working demolition at Ground Zero when an 8,000-pound steel beam fell on his left foot. A former Army veteran, Feal made a tourniquet out of his belt and yelled for help. Soon after treatment for the injury, gangrene set in and he lost half his foot.

    As he began to recover, he decided his calling was to help other 9/11 responders and workers, including those with respiratory illnesses from working in the toxic environment.

    Feal said his gift of life to an anonymous recipient is his way to shed light on all those responders and workers now in need of lung and kidney transplants themselves.

    "I'm committed to 9/11 issues," said Feal, who cites a 9/11 worker he knows who says he now needs a double-lung transplant. "The real reason I'm doing this is to spread awareness of the needs of 9/11 responders. If people on Long Island read this and sign their organ donor on their license, I've done my job."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #313
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    Time Magazine did something on first responders...

    http://www.time.com/time/photoessays...st_responders/
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #314
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    I'm about to go to sleep, and my thoughts are with John Feal. May everything go right, as I'm SURE it will.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #315
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    Amen Jon. Good luck other John.

  6. #316
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    John is fine. He got out of surgery a half hour ago, and is already "wisecracking."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #317
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    This is what a hero looks like...

    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #318
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    John and Paul...

    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  9. #319
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    Raising Awareness
    Thanks to www.peppini.com

    Click Here (GooTube)
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  10. #320
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    A Message From 9/11 First Responder And Kidney Donater, John Feal

    I wish to thank everyone for their support and well wishes. While I got a chance to make a difference in 3 lives last week while risking my own health, I want you all to know I will not stop there. From 9/11 responders to Americans across the board who need help while our federal govt sits idle, I will stress the message of compassion, love and caring for those less fortunate. I will also continue to be a big pain in the ass to those who should be helping and are not. Jon Gold, you and the truth movement ROCK, ROCK, ROCK, and if anyone needs my other kidney they can have it.

    Sincerely,

    John Feal
    FealGood Foundation Founder
    9/11 Responder Advocate
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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