On 9/11, at the
moment the planes
hit the towers,
Richard Pearlman, an
18-year-old member
of the Forest Hills
Volunteer Ambulance
Corps, was
delivering documents
to 1 Police Plaza.
A call went out for
anyone with medical
training so Pearlman
caught a ride to
Ground Zero. He was
last seen alive
entering one of the
towers to aid a
heart attack victim.
His body was found
in the rubble, his
briefcase in a
police cruiser.
Pearlman's sacrifice
is beyond question.
But the Justice
Department has
denied his mother
line-of-duty death
benefits from a fund
intended to
compensate families
for just such
losses.
This injustice must
not stand.
The Public Safety
Officers' Benefits
Program ruled that
Dorie Pearlman was
ineligible on a
finding that her son
had not been acting
in an official
capacity. Shameful.
There was no
"official" that
horrible day, just
people racing to
help.
The decision recalls
the case of Glenn
Winuk, an attorney
and volunteer EMT
who rushed from his
law office to Ground
Zero and was found
dead beside
firefighters. His
survivors, too, were
denied on spurious
grounds; only under
political pressure
and after multiple
appeals did the
government do the
right thing.
Now Justice must do
the same for Dorie
Pearlman. Her case
is under appeal, and
Fire Commissioner
Sal Cassano will
confirm that the
FDNY put out an
emergency call for
anyone with medical
training - the call
Richard Pearlman
answered.
The White House has
already honored her
sacrifice in a
ceremony for family
members of first
responders who died
at the World Trade
Center. The fund
must do the same.
