The Heroes Still Waiting for Their Due: Thousands of 9/11 First Responders Have Dire Health Needs

The Heroes Still Waiting for Their Due: Thousands of 9/11 First Responders Have Dire Health Needs

NY Daily News 3/14/10

After many years of costly litigation, the news broke this week that lawyers for thousands who were injured in the World Trade Center attacks have reached a settlement with the City of New York and others that could provide more than $650 million to those who sustained illnesses or injuries in rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero.

This settlement, if approved by the federal district court, could bring some long-overdue financial relief to many ailing 9/11 responders and their families. However, questions remain about whether the settlement funds will be sufficient to fully compensate thousands of workers - some with life-threatening illnesses - and whether nearly all of the plaintiffs will agree to participate, as is required for the settlement to move forward.

We are certain of one thing, though: This settlement alone will not be enough to fully meet the needs - both financial and medical - of the men and women who rushed into harm's way on Sept. 11, or were innocent victims of the attacks. Congress must finally pass our bill, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide long-term health care and compensation for all those who are sick because of the terrorist attacks on our city and nation.

Indeed, regardless of whether or not the settlement moves forward as planned, the 11,000 plaintiffs will still need medical monitoring for their exposures to the toxic plume that lingered at Ground Zero for months after the attacks, and most will need medical treatment for many years, if not the rest of their lives.

Our bill would expand, make permanent and better coordinate the existing patchwork of federal programs to provide health care for 9/11 responders and survivors of the attacks, fund research into 9/11-related medical conditions, improve outreach to those ailing from 9/11 who live outside the Tri-State area and make many other improvements that may help save the lives of Americans who are sick because of 9/11.

In addition, the 11,000 plaintiffs in this case are only a fraction of the more than 20,000 Americans who have been identified by the federal government to date as having serious health problems as a direct result of the attacks. In all, more than 55,000 first responders and 4,500 survivors of the attacks are already receiving medical treatment and/or monitoring as result of their exposure to Ground Zero toxins. There could be many more.

One 9/11 hero who did not participate in the suit and is still in need of help is Tom, who was a welder with a Long Island construction company. Like thousands of construction workers across the region, Tom answered his country's call for help at Ground Zero. On the evening of Sept. 11, Tom helped set up a makeshift morgue and triage center at the Trade Center site and helped recover victims of the attacks. For the next 10 months, Tom worked long days at Ground Zero - until he fell 20 feet while welding an elevator shaft near the Pile, breaking two vertebrae in his back, immobilizing him for months afterward.

Today, because of the injuries to his back and the severe respiratory illnesses that he has developed since the attacks, Tom can no longer work construction - and has received only minimal compensation for the livelihood he lost in service to our nation.

The Zadroga Act would reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund to help Tom and tens of thousands of Americans like him take care of themselves and their families. The original VCF, created by Congress in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, provided the families of those killed on 9/11 with a means of securing economic relief without resorting to costly, time-consuming litigation. By any measure, the program was an overwhelming success, with the vast majority of 9/11 families seeking compensation through the VCF, rather than through lawsuits. We believe that a reopened VCF would be similarly successful.

We have a moral obligation to care for those who respond to an attack on our country, just as we did more than 65 years ago, in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks. As the Daily News has pointed out in its series of editorials on the World Trade Center health crisis, American civilians helped recover the dead and salvage what remained of our Pacific fleet. Many of these civilians were killed, injured or made sick as a consequence of their heroic service to our nation. In passing the War Hazards Compensation Act of 1942, Congress wisely and compassionately extended health care and financial relief to civilian responders in need.

It is well past time for this Congress to do the same for the heroes and survivors of 9/11. It is truly the least our great nation can do.

Maloney represents the East Side of Manhattan and parts of Queens, and Nadler represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, in the United States House of Representatives.