Page 61 of 67 FirstFirst ... 11515960616263 ... LastLast
Results 601 to 610 of 663

Thread: A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

  1. #601
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    'Ref' eyed in toxic 9/11 suits

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/r...2nCMs2gEG6c5RJ

    By SUSAN EDELMAN
    Last Updated: 2:09 PM, October 4, 2009

    The judge tackling 9,500 toxic-injury lawsuits by World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers may appoint 9/11 compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg to try to mediate settlements.

    While lawyers in the cases have yet to report any settlement talks, Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein told them he'd like to recruit Feinberg or another top lawyer, Sheila Birnbaum. Each has agreed to serve as a "special master."

    "The people who have suffered from injuries, they want to have a recovery and still enjoy a recovery," Hellerstein said.

    Feinberg doled out $7 billion from the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to families that lost loved ones in the terror attacks.

    Birnbaum steered $500 million in settlements to 92 families that sued the airlines, calling the job "heart wrenching."

    Hellerstein has scheduled the first trials for the sickest 9/11 cops, firefighters and other workers to start in May.

    The city has so far fought the toxic torts, spending more than $200 million on lawyers and administrative costs. The money comes from an insurance fund awarded by Congress.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #602
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Three heroes of 9/11 die of cancer in five days

    http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...in_5_days.html

    BY Stephanie Gaskell
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
    Monday, October 12th 2009, 4:44 AM

    A firefighter and two cops who worked at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after Sept. 11 have died of cancer in the past five days, the Daily News has learned.

    Family members and advocates are blaming their deaths on toxins released into the air after the twin towers collapsed - and they're urging Congress to act on a bill that would help pay for their medical care.

    "Everybody is denying that this stuff is connected to 9/11, but it is," said Stephen Grossman, whose son Robert died of cancer on Friday at the age of 44.

    Robert Grossman was a police officer in Harlem who worked at Ground Zero for several weeks after Sept. 11.

    "He never once said he was sorry he went down there," Grossman said. "None of them walked away even though they all knew it was really dangerous."

    The day after Grossman passed away, Firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44, died of cancer. And last Wednesday, 37-year-old Police Officer Cory Diaz died of cancer.

    Firefighter John McNamara, 44, died of cancer last month.

    "Unfortunately, it's just going to happen more and more," Stephen Grossman said. "I hope next week there isn't four."

    Grossman said even though his son lost his battle, there are still many more first responders who are sick.

    "This country just says, 'That's fine. We'll just wait another 15 to 20 years and you'll all be dead and we'll all be sorry,'" he said. "This country is better than that."

    The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act - named after an NYPD detective who died from his post-9/11 ailments - is still sitting in Congress, and Grossman and others are urging lawmakers to act now.

    "These three deaths are proof that we need this bill passed today - not a year from now," said John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation.

    The bill would provide $10 billion for medical care for hundreds of first responders who have since become ill. But doctors haven't directly linked these illnesses to the World Trade Center.

    "The facts are indisputable," said Kenny Specht, 40, a firefighter who worked for the NYPD on Sept. 11 and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer three years ago. "This week alone proves what we've been saying is absolutely occurring."

    Feal said the deaths of Grossman, Diaz and Mannetta in a span of five days is hard to ignore.

    "How do you get this high cluster of serious cancer in just people that worked the pile? he said. "That isn't a coincidence."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #603
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    L.I. NYPD Officer, 9/11 First Responder Laid to Rest

    http://www.1010wins.com/L-I--NYPD-Of...-to-Re/5427198

    10/13/2009

    NEW YORk (AP/1010 WINS) -- A retired New York City police officer who had been a first responder to the World Trade Center on 9/11 and was diagnosed with a brain tumor has been buried on Long Island.

    About 100 police officers saluted Monday as 41-year-old Police Officer Robert Grossman's casket was carried from a Smithtown synagogue after services

    The Rocky Point resident was diagnosed with the brain tumor in 2006 and died Friday. He leaves a wife and six-year-old son.

    Stephen Grossman spoke after his son's service and urged that more medical treatment be provided for first responders. He believes his son's illness was caused by working at Ground Zero.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #604
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Deaths of 9/11 front-liners renew talk of aid bill

    http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/..._aid_bill.html

    BY Adam Lisberg and Stephanie Gaskell
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
    10/13/2009

    The deaths of three 9/11 first responders in the past week is enough proof for Mayor Bloomberg that people are getting sick from working at Ground Zero.

    "Probably - nobody's sure - but probably contracted during breathing the air down at the World Trade Center site," the mayor said yesterday after the Daily News reported that two cops and a firefighter recently died of cancer.

    NYPD Officer Robert Grossman died of cancer Friday at the age of 44. The next day, Firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44, died of cancer. And last Wednesday, 37-year-old Police Officer Cory Diaz also died of cancer. Firefighter John McNamara, 44, died of cancer last month.

    Doctors haven't officially linked the illnesses of dozens of first responders to the toxins at the World Trade Center site, but Bloomberg said the federal government needs to help pay for their medical care.

    The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act - named after an NYPD detective who died of post-9/11 ailments - would provide $10 billion, but has been sitting in Congress for years.

    Bloomberg said time is running out.

    "I think that it's just another reminder that we've just got to get Congress to pass the [bill] that would give us the money," he said.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #605
    Kevin Fenton Guest

    Written statement of James Zadroga

    Jon, don't know if you've seen this before:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/14780344/W...mmission-Files

    It's something Erik found at the archives.

  6. #606
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Thanks Kevin. I had never seen that before.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #607
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Eight Years on and 9/11 Clean-up Workers Still Coughing

    http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/24153/

    10/22/2009

    NEW YORK—It was the benzene from the burning jet fuel, mercury from the smashed fluorescent lighting, lead from the computers, and dioxins from the smoldering plastics that helped create the poisonous cocktail of dust that blanketed lower Manhattan in the days and weeks following the 9/11 disaster, according to Esther Regelson, a local resident and board member of 9/11 Environmental Action.

    Her group, part of a coalition committed to the health of post 9-11 workers, gathered for a rally in Liberty Plaza on Wednesday. Workers and residents who had inhaled toxic dust from the collapsing towers of Sept. 11, 2001 held placards in three languages, demanding health care and compensation.

    The theme of the event was the publication of a new survey, conducted by the 9/11 EA and Beyond Ground Zero groups, of 200 persons afflicted from 9/11 exposure. Many of them report being chronically ill, only five percent said they had recovered, and one-third saw no improvement. The survey calls attention to the lack of official oversight into those with apparent 9/11 induced health problems, particularly those who are not included in government initiatives.

    Fully understanding the range and extent of the different health impacts for different groups is a tangled process which has not been given enough resources, organizers say.

    The health problems of the first responders to 9/11 have been acknowledged by experts, but the scope of the afflicted is greater than that, they said.

    For example, studies conducted by Mount Sinai Hospital-based researchers acknowledge that the effect on the human body of breathing in the combinations of dangerous chemicals sent into the air on 9/11 is an understudied field in medicine. The researchers write that such exposure may have "new and unexpected health effects."

    Some of those who identify as among the afflicted shared their stories at the rally. Mariana Cuniga was one of the cleanup workers, among the hundreds brought in three days after the disaster to start vacuuming and getting rid of the dust. They worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week for Maxons Restorations, one of the subcontractors, she said.

    For the first two months they were provided no gloves, masks, or protective equipment. They also drank water contaminated with the same dust, she said.

    "I can't concentrate well, can't sleep well, I'm very depressed, and of all my friends one has died and one is very sick," she said after the rally.

    "Eight years after the disaster we're all now very sick. We have different problems, but we're all sick and can't work ... No one is taking care of the problems that are afflicting us," she explained. "We cleaned the whole disaster area, now they've forgotten about us."

    She said that she and her friends started to feel that things weren't quite right with their health in 2002 and 2003, but that the problems became more pronounced as time passed, and adequate treatment has not been provided.

    Mariana said that her friend Marta Freire from Ecuador was put into hospital in 2007 and diagnosed with thyroid cancer; she was apparently still too sick to attend the rally.

    Hospitals set up by a government-funded treatment and study program, including at Bellevue, Gouverneur, and Elmhurst, only treat certain symptoms currently identified as 9/11 related.

    This neglects others, like cancer or neurological illnesses, said Kimberly Flynn, who helped write the survey and report. "Bellevue has to shove them over to some other place because Bellevue can't treat them for that."

    Beside the limited scope of treatment, many of those identified as victims of the toxic dust, according to the survey, are unaware of the free government services anyway, and instead visit private doctors.

    Zhang Xiaozhong, a chef, said he was one of them, and was unsatisfied with the result. He says he was exposed to pollutants from 9/11 while at the Jing Hua restaurant on East Broadway in Chinatown, where he works. "I went to the doctor, but he thought the symptoms weren't brought about by 9/11. He treated it as just a regular cough, or an inflamed throat," he said.

    "But ever since 9/11 I've had a long period of time every year coughing, inflammation, and the doctor's medicine has no effect."

    His child, two at the time, now also has respiratory problems, he said.

    Zhang acknowledged that causality between the symptoms and inhalation of poisonous substances from the 9/11 disaster may be hard to fully prove.

    "We know after it happened though," he said. "We didn't have these problems before."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #608
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Help 9/11 fireman in cancer fight

    http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2...ser/news/8.txt

    10/23/2009

    Warwick — Roy Chelsen of Warwick is a retired FDNY firefighter who battled bravely during the terror attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. After reaching the 30th floor of the North tower, he helped save many lives, including those of his fellow firefighters of Engine 28.

    Now he is in a race against time. He has multiple myeloma cancer and needs a marrow or stem cell transplant.

    A tricky tray fundraiser to benefit the Be the Match Foundation will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25, at Mid-Orange Correctional Facility, located at 900 Kings Highway in Warwick. Food, beer, wine, and soft drinks will be available, along with children’s games, music, and raffles. The suggested donation is $20. Kids will be admitted free of charge.

    Donations of tricky tray baskets or prizes to raffle off would be welcome.

    With the community’s help and a successful fundraiser Roy and his wife, Trish, will be able to fund more drives, according to organizer Sean Corrigan. More drives mean more chances that Roy and many others will find a cure.

    For more information, call Corrigan at 646-489-6191, e-mail candscorrigan@aol.com, or visit www.halliganswarwick.com.

    To become a volunteer marrow or stem cell donor, call Be the Match Registry at 1-800-marrow-2 or visit www.marrow.org.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  9. #609
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Heroism and horror: Detective James Zadroga's sacrifice at WTC must not be in vain

    http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...nd_horror.html

    Friday, October 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM

    The statement of NYPD Detective James Zadroga to the 9/11 Commission, excerpted in the adjacent column, should be a must-read for every member of Congress.

    Zadroga's account was submitted to the panel in 2003. Less than three years later, he was dead at age 34, the victim of severely damaged lungs. A New Jersey coroner ruled that Zadroga had been felled by toxins inhaled in long hours of laboring at Ground Zero. The city's medical examiner disputed the finding.

    What was beyond question is that Zadroga breathed in the same pulverized glass and concrete and the same burning chemicals that later inflicted respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases on thousands of rescue and recovery workers.

    His name serves as the informal title of legislation that would provide federal funding for health care for the many 9/11 workers who are ill and reopen the 9/11 victims compensation fund.

    The bill has been stalled in Congress for far too long. Tomorrow, sickened workers will rally, yet again, in the hope of winning action. Among other things, they will cite the deaths this month of three 9/11 responders in a single five-day period.

    All were young - Police Officer Robert Grossman and Firefighter Richard Mannetta were 44, Officer Cory Diaz was 37. All died of cancers. The cancer death of Firefighter John McNamara, also 44, shortly preceded those losses.

    Doctors are hesitant to link cancers to Ground Zero's poisoned air. Whether there is cause and effect is in no way certain. The illnesses might only reflect the cancer rate in the general population.

    For years, experts have feared a second wave of illnesses - cancers - would emerge in WTC responders. The question of whether a new, deadlier epidemic is starting will take painstaking analysis. The numbers so far are rudimentary:

    The state Health Department WTC Responder Fatality Investigation Program blames 249 of 454 deaths from illnesses on cancer. A study by the Mount Sinai Medical Center World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program described four cases of a blood cancer in people under 45 among 28,000 studied. That's four times the rate found in the general population. Some 600 of the 10,000 people in a lawsuit against the city and contractors involved in the cleanup downtown say they have cancer.

    While no conclusions are possible, there are grounds for intensive study - of a kind that would be funded by a federal WTC program. Should a link be proven between Ground Zero exposure and cancer, the need for health care and compensation would rise exponentially.

    To read Zadroga's statement is to encounter heroism that has faded unconscionably from memory, as well as a betrayal that has simply been unconscionable. His feeling of having been abandoned by his country is heartbreaking, as it must be for all the forgotten victims of 9/11.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  10. #610
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    100 rally at Ground Zero in support of health care bill for first responders

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009...#ixzz0UxS6o0qC


    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009...alth_care.html

    Jake Pearson and Christina Boyle
    10/25/2009

    First responders rallied at Ground Zero on Saturday, urging Congress to pass a health care bill for workers who became sick inhaling toxic dust on 9/11.

    At least 100 people waved banners and American flags to show their support for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named after an NYPD detective whose death was attributed to post-9/11 ailments.

    "John cared about two things," said Jennifer McNamara, referring to her husband, a city firefighter who died of colon cancer in September.

    "He cared about seeing his son grow up, and he cared about other sick 9/11 responders."

    Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) joined the protestors, demanding the lawmakers push forward with the bill.

    "It is time we honor them not just with awards, but with the health care they deserve," Maloney said.

    The bill would provide $10 billion for medical care for hundreds of first responders who have become ill since 2001.

    Doctors have not directly linked their illnesses to Ground Zero.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-25-2008, 08:20 PM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 12-04-2006, 07:26 PM
  3. A Fallen Hero - Video Inside
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 01-09-2006, 08:13 PM
  4. Honoring The Fallen - Video Inside
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-01-2005, 10:47 PM
  5. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 08-21-2005, 01:59 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •