9/11 — Two Decades later. The Toxic Dust continues to kill
Claims paid at 50–70 Percent Reduction/Out of Money
Attorney Michael Barasch told me to think about what he was about to say:
“By the end of next month Dominic, we will have lost more responders as a result of the toxic dust, and the illnesses that it caused, then we lost on 9/11… Think about that.”- Attorney Michael Barasch
America lost 412 First Responders on 9/11.
The children of those heroes are now adults themselves. Their stories are just heartbreaking.
Adding insult to a nearly impossible situation, those that are just getting diagnosed with cancer, not just first responders but anyone with a 9/11 claim going forward…. will not only get 50 percent LESS from the nearly financial-broke Victims Compensation Board….but now up to a 70 percent reduction.
At first, a young woman named Bridget Gormley was looking stoic at me. Minutes later, you could sense she was getting emotional discussing her FDNY father, William Gormley of Engine 310/Ladder 174 in East Flatbush Brooklyn who is now deceased. Firefighter Gormley spent months working at Ground Zero. He died at the age of 53, of 9/11-related bladder and lung cancer.
The initial 9/11 attacks didn’t kill Firefighter Gormley, but the cancer from the 9/11 air did. Years Later
“So my father, he responded on 911, shortly after the collapse, and then he was diagnosed with bladder cancer in Dec of 2017, and then he passed away the following year in June, so six months. From Diagnosis to death.” — Bridget Gormley
People are becoming ill, all these years later….
A young man, Robert Tilearcio also spoke to me, sitting next to Bridget Gormley. His father, Robert Tilearcio was stationed at Engine 266 in Far Rockaway, Queens. Firefighter Tilearcio worked 24-hour shifts for at least a month at Ground Zero.
“My father had Glioblastoma, which is a really aggressive brain cancer that someone would have 14 months or less to live.” -Robert Tilearcio
“Quite simply, we’re running out of money. Nobody anticipated the explosion in cancers and deaths. Not a day goes by…without one of my clients dying.” -Att. Michael Barasch
The families call it CANCER on Steroids. For 911 first responders…or people that were just there….also breathing the air. You can hear the full interviews we did with Robert Tilearcio and Bridget Gormley by clicking here. Robert puts the situation in perspective:
“The government said the air was safe to breath on 911 and in fact it was not….Unfortunately there was a half a million people about, give or take, breathing the air down here, south of Canal St on 911 that were affected by the dust, the abstelosls lead, and whatever else was in the air. Their now getting sick, to this day, at an alarming rate. It’s like CANCER on steroids. So it’s beyond first responders. You see now residents and office workers that are getting crazy amounts of cancer.”-Robert Tilearcio
Robert will be following in his dad’s footsteps…. entering the Fire Department (FDNY) Academy in two weeks.
“Our father’s aren’t here to speak for themselves now. so we like pick up the torch and carry it on. They weren’t the first, they won’t be the last. This is an issue that is going to go well into the future.’ It’s all multi-generations. You had kids that were exposed that were infants, kindergarteners, high-schoolers, all exposed, all sent back to school and saying it was fine and now you have people our age and younger, with breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, it just doesn’t end you know.” -Bridget Gormley
“I wanted to leave certain things to my family. I hope that I don’t have to end up selling my house.” -Retired NYPD Lt. John McArdle
On an emotional level, the accounts from the young people were tough to listen to, but then I met NYPD Lt. John McArdle. McArdle has given to others his entire career.
McArdle worked for 24 years with Emergency Services of the NYPD and was just days from his retirement.. But he refused to stay home that day back in 2001. McArdle was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2014.
“I immediately got in my car, went down to my old command, `got my uniform, and headed straight down towards the trade center….I was down there for the first month and a half. I never left the site. I actually slept on a cot I had in the back of the command post.” Retired NYPD Lt. John McArdle
McArdle also spent years working with the NY Task Force 1 of FEMA…and handled the bombing in Oklahoma City and numerous hurricanes. His pending Victims Compensation Fund claim will will likely be half of what was once offered to sick first responders and survivors. You can listen to the full audio interview with Mr. McArdle by clicking here.
“15 years later, a lot of people started to develop these different diseases and anomalies as a result of what happened that particular day….There is a lot money that is spent in the country that we know is wasted, and when your not taking care of your veterans and your not taking care of your first responders, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.” Retired NYPD Lt. John McArdle
“We didn’t have the proper masks in the beginning, only for the simple fact that there was a flood of those masks needed, and they weren’t available. The second part of that with the mask is if you had to give any kind of orders or do anything on the radio, you needed to remove the mask to talk…and most of the time if you were a supervisor, you were talking.”Retired NYPD Lt. John McArdle
Along with the cancer, McArdle has suffered from numerous 9/11 related illnesses.
“They did send a team up from Washington. to take air samples of the site who went up in the helicopter, and it was scientists from washington like I said, and we never, ever got the results of the air test.” Retired NYPD Lt. John McArdle
Attorney Michael Barasch has been standing up for 9/11 victims for years. To understand what is going on, one has to understand the politics of the situation.
“This was non partisan toxic dust. So it shouldn’t matter whether your a republican or a democrat. but it seems to matter. for some reason we’re having trouble getting republicans who live outside of the new york area, who represents constitutes outside of New York to support the extension, and the full funding that we need, and that’s why we keep going to washington, we’re going to make this happen, but we’re got to convince another 8–10 republican senators to get on board. You can hear the audio of Dominic Carter’s entire interview with Attorney Michael Barasch by clicking below.
