FDNY’S 9/11 horror & hope
75% rate of long-term illness, but many learn to deal with it
Nearly three-quarters of city Fire Department workers who worked among the smoldering, toxic rubble at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan now have some sort of long-term illness linked to their service, according to a new report from the FDNY’s World Trade Center Health Program.
Of more than 15,200 firefighters, paramedics and other FDNY workers, more than 11,300 had an illness certified under the guidelines of the federally backed program, ranging from chronic acid reflux and minor breathing problems on the low end to a broad spectrum of mental health problems to deadly lung ailments and lethal cancers.
The report offers a 20-year snapshot of the most affected and best-studied contingent of people whose lives were upended on that fateful day.
“We knew our members would want to know two things — first, how is that individual person sitting across the table from us doing?” FDNY Chief Medical Officer David Prezant told the Daily News. “Secondly, how are my buddies doing? How’s everybody else doing? So we knew right from the beginning that we had to do analyses to answer that question.”
As of the end of March this year, 3,097 FDNY health program members had at least one 9/11-linked cancer, and hundreds of those people had multiple cancers. That grim statistic helps account for another one that is not in the report — nearly 250 firefighters have died since 9/11 of related diseases.
The most common ailment is gastroesophageal reflux disease, which nearly a half of firefighters and a quarter of emergency medical technicians suffered. That’s followed by similar levels of upper and lower respiratory problems.
The infamous “World Trade Center cough,” caused by the caustic dust and smoke from the imploded towers, which plagued more than half the responders in the year after the attacks, now affects less than 10% of them. Similarly, chronic sore throats dropped from a nearly two-thirds figure to just under a quarter now.
But the report also reveals some bright spots, highlighting several members of the department who have thrived as best they could despite grievous illnesses. Among them, former Capt. Alfredo Fuentes, who was pulled barely alive from the rubble, and now struggles with sinusitis, chronic breathing problems, memory loss and postconcussion syndrome. Another is former Lt. Terrence Jordan, who must be tethered to an oxygen tank to survive.
Yet the highlighted members see themselves as fortunate, perhaps a surprising response to epic misfortune, but one that turns out to be common among ill 9/11 responders.
“We can’t take away the exposure, but we should not think that everyone is going to have a fatal outcome,” Prezant said. “These four people represent the majority of our members exposed that day. They’re still alive, they’re still struggling, but they’ve overcome or learned to deal with major illnesses. And they’re here today with an incredibly positive attitude about what the future holds.”
“That’s an amazing accomplishment for this program,” Prezant said. “It shows the power that monitoring, annual monitoring, has in terms of leading to early diagnosis, early treatment.
“It shows the advantage of having a no-cost treatment program, so that no one has to be concerned about access to care, about getting care, about financial stress related to care.”
Of course, there are still stresses, and one of them remains the frightening wild card of slower-moving illness that takes decades to manifest, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Some new illnesses that are already emerging include autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hearing issues and neurological conditions, according to the report.
The bright spots don’t gloss over the problems the report also singles out, including people who are not doing well. Members of the program who have a mental health problem as well as a physical illness report a poor quality of life. And while mental health has steadily improved since 9/11, more than a fifth of responders who were at Ground Zero on that morning still report depression. Around one in 10 have posttraumatic stress disorder.
Prezant, who himself survived the collapses under a crushed overpass, argues a robust health program is exactly what his responders needed and deserve.
“This report shows that we were right,” he said, “that despite incredible exposures, we can make an impact.”