(Editorial staff @ AwarenessforaCure.org)
Our 9/11 Health Report presents an exclusive interview with
Mr. Michael Barasch of Barasch & McGarry; a nationally-recognized law firm
dedicated to victims with post-9/11 illnesses.
Awareness for a Cure explores the many concerns and complex issues of
being a 9/11 survivor- from the health and medical aspects to the social and
political landscape to defining of the policies of being certified with the WTCHealth Program. Very few can bring clarity
to all these perspectives in a way that Mr. Barasch has been able to provide
us.
Q: You had a front
row seat to the points of view of many first responders. From your
conversations with your clients, can you give us some insight on what it was
like to be in their shoes?
What I did hear was that because the buildings were on fire
for 99 days, it was ridiculously hot. It was really like working in hell
finding body parts while it was 120 degrees or hotter the closer you got to the
flames. You can't imagine the conditions that these guys worked in, and not
just the firefighters and the cops, but the steel workers, the construction
workers, the debris removal people. They don't get nearly enough credit for
what they did to retrieve as many body parts as possible. What I heard was (and
this comes from conversations I've had with hundreds of guys) was you couldn't
breathe without the mask, but you couldn't communicate if you had the mask on.
Q: What types of
injuries in your experience are most commonly reported both then and now?
Respiratory illnesses were the most common illnesses but NOW it is cancer. Miraculously, nobody died during the rescue and recovery operation, although they're certainly dying now. My office alone represents over 500 people who have died as a result of the 9/11 cancers. That's shocking, the WTC Health Program Reported that over 10,000 people in the 9/11 community have been diagnosed and certified with WTC cancers and more than 2,000 people have had their deaths linked to the 68 cancers.
Q: After almost 20 years
since the disaster, we have federal and state programs to support our first
responders and victims of 9/11. Do you
feel they're doing enough of the right thing for us?
Congress finally did the right thing. After the EPA misled
everybody by assuring us that “the air was safe,” we then had the medical proof
that the air was not safe, and was in fact causing serious respiratory
illnesses. Doctors have now linked 68 cancers to the toxins. When they did the
autopsy report of Jimmy Zadroga, who was also one of my clients, they found
ground-glass, asbestos, benzene, chromium, lead, and other carcinogens in his
lung tissue. That was the evidence that the medical community needed to link WTC
toxins to these terrible diseases and wrongful deaths. Congress created the
Heath Program, and if you're certified by the Heath Program with an 9/11
illness, then you're entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering, and your
lost income.
There are latency periods, so if you were diagnosed with
cancer too soon after 9/11/01, obviously it's not caused by your toxic
exposure. But doctors have come up with the proper latency period based on
statistics that they have, that other epidemiologists have, that tell us that
if a cancer was diagnosed after September of 2005, that it was more likely than
not caused by the toxic exposure. This is what the doctors say, this is what
the Health Program says, so I'm just trying to follow their lead and get
compensation for people who have certified illnesses.
Q: So as an attorney
representing a 9/11 client, what's the standard process in helping them get the
health care and compensation they need and deserve? Also, what's the approval process?
I have to (first) register them in both the Health Program
and the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). Both the Health Program and the
compensation fund want to see that claimants had significant enough exposure to
be eligible to be certified. If you were just there visiting for one hour on
October 7th, it's not enough, it's not enough exposure. There are certain
parameters that the doctors and epidemiologists say is mandatory – a certain
amount of exposure for your illness to be linked to the toxic dust.
If you can prove that you were disabled as a result of your
cancer or severe pulmonary illness, and you've been found disabled say by
worker's compensation, or social security disability, or the Police Pension
Board, or the Fire Department Pension Board, then you would be entitled to lost
income as well, and some money also for your pain and suffering. So there are
two elements, there's non-economic loss which is pain and suffering, and then
there is lost income which is what you get if found disabled.
Q: ... So the first
step is for the individual to be certified?
Yes, we have to get them certified by the WTC Health Program
first. Claimants must get the proof from witnesses to sign affidavits
confirming that they were there. Then they are examined by the health program doctors
who review their old medical records. Once they're certified, we submit their
applications to the VCF. If they don't get an award, we go to hearings all the
time to present proof to try to get them found eligible. Sometimes claimants
have a respiratory illness that is not eligible, but they also have a severe
cancer that is eligible. Sometimes they are disabled, but only partially for
their certified WTC illness. So we need to overcome that. We've had to hire
economists. We do a lot of legal work, but a lot of it is also administrative.
Q: What do you see
lacking in our current system or programs?
I have fought for them to open up another Heath Program clinic
strictly for the downtown community. Right now there is an enormous wait,
sometimes up to a year, for a downtown local resident or office worker to get
into Bellevue Hospital where they do the World Trade Center Health Program
examinations. It sometimes takes a year
to get an examination before you're certified, and that's just not right. So
I’m glad to see that they have opened another clinic downtown.
Q: All systems are
tested and challenged over time. Since its' inception, do you believe the
design of the WTC Health Program and the Victim Compensation Fund covers
everyone accurately?
There's a real danger because while the heath program was
reauthorized for 70 years, the Victim Compensation Fund was only re-authorized
for five years, and it's going to expire at the end of 2020. Well, guess what?
The doctors tell me and I'm seeing it in my office, people continue to get
sick, to get cancers, and to die at alarming rates. It's truly heartbreaking.
This will no doubt continue. Congress has to do the right thing by extending
the Victim Compensation Fund, because people aren't going to stop getting sick, and they're certainly not going to stop dying. So we've got to take care of these families for when their spouse, father, or child dies. After all, the only thing these people did wrong was believe the EPA when they said "the air is safe".
1) Awareness for a Cure: Awarenessforacure.org
2) NYCRA -NY Cancer Resource Alliance: NYCRAlliance.org
3) L.I. Caregivers Group- LIcaregivers.org
4) Immunology Today Magazine: ImmunologySmarts.com
5) 9/11 Cancer Resources- 911CancerScan.com
6) The Balance After Cancer Foundation - balanceaftercancer.org/
7) Best Answer for Cancer: bestanswerforcancer.org
8) LI2Day Walk- li2daywalk.com
SPECIAL THANKS:
Awareness for a Cure gives special thanks to Mr. Michael Barasch for his generosity and insight in the making of this feature and for his research and experience in providing first-hand information about 9/11 related topics. Our publishers also wish to extend our gratitude to Mr. John Feal of the FealGood foundation for giving us the education we needed to publish our newsletter. Also to Ms. Amanda Granek and Ms. Kate Monaghan of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum for granting use of 9/11 images. Extra-special thanks to the unending strength and contagious energy of Lisa Vento-Nielsen (9/11 Cancer Survivor), AFAC's new editor, "storyfinder" and social media queen- whose loving support and technical contributions made this article and many other awareness projects with NYCRA, AFAC and 911CancerScan possible.
