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Six Years Later .
. . World Trade Center diseases persist
BY
CHRISTINA SANTUCCI
September 13, 2007
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 Before
9/11, paramedic Marvin Bethea took two prescriptions,
and now he swallows and ingests between 13 and 15
medications daily.
“I’ve been diagnosed with World Trade Center (WTC)
cough, sinusitis and asthma, major depression and
Post-Traumatic Street Disorder (PTSD). I finally had to
stop working on January 8, 2004,” the Kew Gardens
resident said.
It took two full years before Bethea’s workers
compensation case was settled in July 2006, but he said
he was lucky in that his medical treatment was performed
at Mount Sinai Medical Center and paid for by private
donations.
However many others who worked on the pile have not been
as fortunate.
“They are losing their homes. They
are losing their families because they are not making
the money that they made before, and it’s not our fault
that we can’t work anymore,” Bethea said.
Since 2001, Bethea has been vigilantly advocating for
first responders to get health and financial benefits
and co-founded the Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes
Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the first
responders. Bethea has also enlisted support from
Congress members Jerrold Nadler, Vito Fossella, Hillary
Clinton, and Carolyn Maloney.
With the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks,
Bethea is solidly booked with speaking engagements where
he revisits his experience that day. |
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On September 11, 2001, while on assignment for
St. John’s Hospital, Bethea, his partner James
Dobfon and a student paramedic were called into
lower Manhattan.
As they were driving across the 59th Street
Bridge, Bethea saw the second plane fly into the
Twin Towers.
“We knew then that this wasn’t an accident. This
was terrorism,” Bethea said.
At the site, Bethea and his partner were helping
the wounded into ambulances when the first tower
fell. Afterward Dobfon drove away with several
injured people in the ambulance.
“At that point we just were doing what we had to
do,” Bethea said, explaining that he spotted a
woman crying and went over to help her when the
second tower began to give way. They both dove
into the Millenium Hilton, narrowly escaping the
falling debris.
After some time, he and the woman crawled
through a two-foot space onto the street, Bethea
searching for other survivors in need of medical
care.
“It was like I was the last man on earth,” he
said, describing torched cars, piles of rubble
and the vacant streets.
Bethea, thinking he was hallucinating, did not
realize at first that the ambulance pulling up
in front of him was real. He reached down to
feel that his own arms were still connected when
his partner jumped out of the car.
“He thought I was dead, I thought he was dead,
so we just hugged each other,” Bethea said.
Later in the day, both Bethea and Dobfon were
sent down to the ferry port, where a makeshift
hospital was set up. They stayed until 5 p.m.,
when they headed back to St. John’s, where they
had to strip to their underwear on the street
for a decontamination shower to wash away a
coating of debris and dust.
“My biggest mistake was that I went back to work
the very next day. I must have cried about 40
days in a row. I lost 16 people I knew,” Bethea
said, explaining that because he is unmarried
and has no children he went back to work the
next day as a paramedic. He also volunteered at
Ground Zero on September 14th. “On October 16
[2001], all of this caught up with me.”
Bethea who had no history of heart problems had
a stroke on the job and temporarily lost the use
of his right arm and leg.
Nevertheless, he willed himself to recuperate
and was back at work within three months.
“I’ve had a gun to my head once, shot at twice,
and nothing compared to those two towers coming
down,” he said, explaining his desire to go back
to work. “I can survive a stroke.”
However, Bethea was plagued with anxiety,
nightmares and breathing problems, and in 2004,
he had to call it quits.
“Now when I go up three flights of stairs I’m
huffing and puffing,” he said.
Although he has received an award from the
September 11 Victim Compensation Fund for his
injuries, Bethea said that he wants to make sure
that he will be able to provide for himself.
More specifically, what he wants is equal
compensation for city first responders and their
private counterparts, who comprise 40 percent of
the paramedic workforce. Although city
paramedics have received three-fourths pay in
workers compensation, Bethea’s yearly sum is
just over one-fifth of his former take home pay.
Currently there is a bill awaiting review in the
State Assembly, and the proposal would double
Bethea’s compensation benefits, as well as those
of four other living paramedics.
“Now my fate lies in the hands of [Assembly
Speaker] Sheldon Silver,” Bethea said.
However, Bethea worries that national interest
in the cause is waning.
“Some people are tired of hearing about 9/11 and
other people in the country just don’t know how
sick the people … are,” Bethea said.
Meanwhile in Congress, Maloney, Fosella, and
Nadler recently announced plans to introduce a
new bill to ensure medical monitoring and
treatment for those sick from WTC toxins; expand
care to local residents, workers, students, and
volunteers; provide compensation for economic
damages; and build up area medical facilities.
Maloney praised Bethea for his work both on 9/11
and afterward.
“Despite his illnesses, he has become a true
champion for his fellow 9/11 responders,”
Maloney said. “I know that Marvin will not rest
until our government finally does right by
everyone whose health was compromised by the
Trade Center attacks. Marvin is a great New
Yorker and a great American and I am very proud
to call him my friend.”
Compensation
extension for 9/11 workers
The deadline for 9/11 workers and volunteers to
register with the state Workers’ Compensation
Board has been extended to August 14, 2008.
In July, Governor Eliot Spitzer extended the
deadline by one year and workers and volunteers
who pitched in at Ground Zero can file a claim
even if they are not sick.
In general, Workers’ Compensation claims must be
filed within two years, but World Trade Center
recovery personnel were afforded extra time in
the event that they become ill in the future.
Registration forms are available at the state’s
Workers’ Compensation Board website,
http://www.wcb.state.ny.us/content/main/forms/wtc-12.pdf.
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