Decent people who feel forgotten

Decent people who feel forgotten

Reports on the aftermath of September 11, 2001 seldom focus on the group of people I spent Wednesday morning with.

They're the first responders - about 300 fire fighters, police, ambulance crews and volunteers of every description who helped on the day the towers came down in Lower Manhattan and then stayed in the ruins for months.

They're angry.

It's taken eight years for Congress to get round to discussing legislation to provide federal help for emergency workers who fell ill after 9/11.

Many are slowly dying from illnesses their doctors say were contracted at Ground Zero.

Teresa Quibell's fiance, Gregory, was among the rescuers in 2001. Five years later his body began producing Benzene, the result of inhaling too much jet fuel, according to doctors.

Teresa told me: "When we first diagnosed him with a leukaemia he had no red blood cells in his bone marrow whatsoever."

Gregory Quibell's is one of a rising number of 9/11 related deaths, leading to fears of a cancer epidemic in the ranks of the first responders - five have died in the last three months.
 
The spate of cancer deaths comes as Congress is under pressure to pass legislation to help emergency workers who got sick after 911.

The bill, which it's hoped will pass by the end of the year, is split into two sections - healthcare for the sick and compensation for their families. Total cost: $11bn.

New York Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is the bill's author. She's been on it for eight years. 

She told me: "We call them heroes and heroines, we give them awards. What they really need is their healthcare - that's why were here today."
 
John Gallagher is a retired New York fire captain. He has terminal lung disease but considers himself one of the lucky ones.

"The government recognises my disease as 9/11 related and therefore all of my medical expenses are being paid, unlike a lot of the people here who are sick - construction workers who are sick and are told to sue the contractor they were working for," he said.

John Feal falls into that category. A construction worker, he can't believe after eight years Congress is only just now getting round to making permanent help for people like him.
 
"Human life takes a back seat to the almighty dollar ... the Bush administration didn't want to accept accountability or responsibility and while Barack Obama has promised change I've yet to see that and I voted for the man," he said.
 
If legislation is passed by the end of the year these people know it won't save a single life out of the 71,00 names that appear on the World Trade Centre Health Registry ... but it may pay a few bills and make life a little easier for those they leave behind or who care for them.
 
John Terrett, Washington. November 18th 2009