There may be a breakthrough in the effort to help 9/11 first responders suffering from diseases they may have contracted at Ground Zero.
Pending a confidentiality agreement, New York City has agreed to turn over health information to Mount Sinai Medical Center about more than 300 police department personnel who developed cancer after working at the World Trade Center site in the days, weeks and months after the attacks.
PBA President Pat Lynch said he thinks the decision was long overdue.
“When you have young men and women dying of of exotic cancers that they should not have, it came from September 11. Let’s stop the questioning, let’s respond to our members’ needs. There’s one thing that they want, they want the treatment so they can get better and they can go home to their families,” Lynch said.
While the Bloomberg Administration said it won’t release any names, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also called the move an important first step.
“The day we can declare a real victory — a total victory — is when every man and woman who served is getting every conceivable support for every disease they contracted on 9/11 and in the rescue and recovery,” de Blasio said.
(Source: WCBSTV)