Ron Perlman joins 9/11 health fight
Actor Ron Perlman's brother-in-law worked just three blocks away from the World Trade Center when the towers came down, and exposure to the poisonous air around Ground Zero left him with kidney disease, he says.
Now, he's teaming up with the “Hellboy” and “Sons of Anarchy” star to raise awareness about Sept. 11-related illnesses, in the hopes that people will donate their healthy kidneys to him and other victims sickened by the toxic debris pile. “There are still victims of 9/11 who are walking around, who lived and worked in the neighborhood through those years, and are only recently beginning to suffer — either through respiratory illnesses or in my case, cancer,” said Robert Palmer, 65.
Palmer was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008, and began chemo. In 2016, he went to the hospital with pneumonia, and his kidneys failed. He's been on dialysis for the past two years.
“That's my one and only brother-inlaw. I've watched him go through this process,” Perlman said. “I watched all of the frustration of trying to figure out how to get the proper treatment, where you thought you were getting good results and it turned out you were going down dead ends.”