Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes

Inaugural WTC Responders Day held at Ground Zero
Newsday.com June 14, 2008 By Daniel Edward Rosen

Emergency responders and volunteers who are enduring lasting health effects from their work at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center gathered there Saturday for an event billed as the "First Annual WTC Responder Day."

"It's almost seven years. The responders are tired of hearing about press conferences. They're tired of hearing about hearings, and they're tired," said Marvin Bethea, 48, a former paramedic originally from Huntington who was a first responder working in lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He said he recently suffered a stroke.

The event, organized by Mount Sinai Medical Center's World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, drew about 100 people, not as many as some had hoped. It was meant to honor those first responders who face increasing medical expenses following their work on Ground Zero.

Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), surrounded by first responders and labor representatives, railed against the federal government for not providing adequate health care for 9/11 emergency responders.

"They responded in a second's notice, they rushed in to save the lives of others, and where has the government been?" asked Maloney, her words echoing through the Ground Zero site. "It will be our shared determination that will get our responders and workers the health care they deserve."

Maloney and Nadler said that by Sept. 11 of this year they plan to introduce a bill that would guarantee medical monitoring and treatment to first responders who are struggling to afford it.

Several first responders such as Susan Sidel, 50, of Brooklyn Heights, who volunteered in a Salvation Army tent at Ground Zero, shared their tales of deteriorating health with the small crowd.

Sidel, a former entertainment lawyer, said she had to leave her job after suffering severe memory loss.

"If you don't have your health, you have nothing," she said.

In 2006, Mount Sinai released a study showing that of the 9,442 first responders that they had surveyed, 69 percent experienced worsening respiratory problems.

Steve Zablokci and Kirk Arsenault's Boston-based demolition crew was hired to help tear down 5 World Trade Center, located east of the North Tower, and remove large pieces of the South Tower from the Bankers Trust building.

Since then, Arsenault, 44, of Salem, Mass., was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Two of his fellow crew members were diagnosed with brain cancer and breast cancer, respectively.

Following the cleanup, Zablokci, 44, also of Salem, had difficulty hearing and had to have tubes surgically inserted in his ears.

"My surgeon told me, '44 years old, that's not normal,' " said Zablokci.

"He had to get tubes inserted in his ears like a little kid," added Arsenault.

The pair had ridden their motorcyles from their Salem homes, starting at 5 a.m., to take part in the motorcycle procession that started responders' Day. Only nine bikers showed up.

"I drove by and I was like, 'Where are all the bikers?' " Zablokci said.

Others expressed disappointment in the low turnout for the inaugural event specifically held for Sept. 11 first responders.

"The numbers were disappointing," said John Feal of the Feal Good Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides financial and medical assistance to responders in need.

"I'm mad at the responders themselves, who pleaded and begged for help, who want the benefits that they deserve," added Feal, 41, of Nesconset, who was a first responder and lost half of his left foot when a steel beam fell on it during the trade center cleanup. "But it seems they don't want to get off their backsides."

Inaugural WTC Responders Day held at Ground Zero Newsday.com June 14, 2008 By Daniel Edward Rosen

Inaugural WTC Responders Day held at Ground Zero
Newsday.com June 14, 2008 By Daniel Edward Rosen