A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

Estimate: Giuliant spent 7 percent of time spent by first responders at Ground Zero

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Records_show_Giulianis_time_at_Ground_0817.html

Nick Juliano
Published: Friday August 17, 2007

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has faced repeated criticism of his apparent attempts to trade on his reputation that grew out of Sept. 11 to propel his presidential campaign.

A new estimate shows Giuliani spent about 7 percent as much time at Ground Zero as did the typical first responder during a three month period after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

On Friday the GOP frontrunner faced more harsh words after the New York Times revealed that Giuliani spent only 29 hours at the smoldering pile of wreckage that was the World Trade Center from mid-September to mid-December 2001.

During those same three months, rescue workers were putting in 12-hour shifts digging through the World Trade Center's wreckage. And Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association of New York City, told the Times that officers averaged 400 hours each at the site during that time.

Talking Points Memo's Election Central unearthed comments from Giuliani in 2006.

"I spent as much time here as anyone ... I was here five, six times a day for four months," Giuliani said last September. "I thought of it as living here."

The Times' tally was compiled from records of Giuliani's schedules form Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001 and does not take into account the first six days following the attack, during which Giuliani paid repeated visits to the site.

If Giuliani had paid Ground Zero five or six daily visits for the timeframe covered by the Times, a rough estimate shows each visit would've lasted less than four minutes, on average. However the Times reports Giuliani made 41 appearances at Ground Zero, mostly to give tours to other officials and foreign dignitaries.

In his 2002 book, Leadership, Giuliani recounts visiting Ground Zero on Jan. 1, 2002, just after his successor, Michael Bloomberg, was sworn in.

"I wanted it to be the last place I visited before I left," Giuliani wrote. "I had been there hundreds of times in the three and a half months since the attacks."

Giuliani was criticized earlier this month when he claimed he was "at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers." First responders said the remark was insensitive and untrue. Although Giuliani said a few days later that he misspoke, he still claimed to face health risks because of his exposure to toxic material at Ground Zero.
 
I was waiting for this to come out and expose this asshole for the liar he is. People love to crunch numbers and make statistics for things. 83% of people know that...
 
The one whee he initailly said it, or this one? I have seens the first one of course. Both you and BM posted it, and I commented on it. This one I saw just now.
 
No, I hadn't seen that one. Powerfully written. You have to admire the courage and lack of resentment.
 
Now that is the worst thing i have heard all month. What a shame the US Government killed all those people, and then killed how many more by redacting that report?
 
9/11 'LIES' HANG IN THE AIR

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08202007/news/regionalnews/9_11_lies_hang_in_the_air_regionalnews_john_mazor_and_leonard_greene.htm

By JOHN MAZOR and LEONARD GREENE

August 20, 2007 -- Angry lower Manhattan residents who find themselves reliving the 9/11 nightmare say reassurances about air quality following the weekend blaze at the Deutsche Bank building are simply not enough.

"Residents were told after 9/11 that air was safe," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "Well, we found out how untrue that was."

Officials, including Gov. Spitzer, said tests for asbestos and other contaminants during and after the fire were negative.

City environmental officials said 57 air samples near the building have tested negative for asbestos since the blaze.

But Stringer said residents need to see the results for themselves.

"This community in particular needs reassurance beyond one test result," Stringer said.

Two firefighters perished Saturday in the seven-alarm fire that brought back eerie memories of the terrorist attacks.

"I was back at 9/11," said Esther Regelson, 48, who watched the fire with neighbors from her Washington Street home. "There we were on the roof, watching things burning, wondering if the building was going to collapse."

Thankfully, it didn't, and Mayor Bloomberg said there was never any danger of that.

But that bit of reassurance was hardly consolation for those who still remember the roar of the Twin Towers as they collapsed.

"I've lived her for 30 years," said Ruth Davis, 49, "and I feel they should have blown the [Deutsche Bank building up right after 9/11.

"The quality of air was already bad. What difference would it have made if they blew it up right then?"
 
Asthma Rates High Among 9/11 Workers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082700788.html

By DEVLIN BARRETT
The Associated Press
Monday, August 27, 2007; 1:36 PM

WASHINGTON -- A new survey of Sept. 11-related illnesses has found an alarming increase in asthma _ 12 times higher than normal _ among those who toiled on the toxic debris piles of ground zero.

The study was released Monday by the New York City Department of Health, based on responses gathered by the World Trade Center Health Registry.

The data show 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers in the registry reported developing asthma after working at the site _ more than 12 times the expected figure for adults over a similar time period.

"The risk was significantly elevated for fire and rescue workers, medical workers, and police and military personnel compared to volunteers," according to the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Firefighters, police officers, construction workers and volunteers swarmed to the site immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. While most of them were from New York, hundreds or more came from across the country to help in the moment of national crisis.

Overall, workers who arrived at the disaster site on the day of the attacks and stayed more than 90 days reported the highest rate of new asthma _ 7 percent. Volunteers accounted for almost one-third of those responding to the survey; firefighters accounted for about 14 percent.

Workers who reported wearing protective respirators on Sept. 11 and 12, when the contamination was at its worst, had lower risk of developing adult-onset asthma, the study found.

"These findings reflect the critical importance of getting appropriate respiratory protection to all workers as quickly as possible during a disaster, and making every effort to make sure workers wear them at all times," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the city's health commissioner.

The results buttress previous research that found 70 percent of those who worked at ground zero later suffered lung problems. The doctors who conducted that study said they expect thousands to need treatment for 9/11 illnesses, and New York politicians, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have pushed for a $1.9 billion program to treat those workers.

The authors of the new asthma study cautioned the findings are based on self-reporting by those answering their survey questions, so they cannot verify diagnoses or rule out over-reporting by those who responded.

The authors also said there is little pre-existing data on the prevalence of asthma among first responders _ but separate research published by Swiss doctors in March in the medical journal Chest found asthma was "considerably underdiagnosed in firefighters."

The World Trade Center Health Registry was launched in 2003 to track the long-term health effects of ground zero exposure to workers, volunteers, and residents.
 
WTC responder spearheds three-way kidney transplant

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-likidn0830,0,7486226.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines

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John Feal, a Nesconset resident and former demolition expert, has dedicated his life to helping others after losing half his foot working at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of 9/11.

BY STACEY ALTHERR | [email protected]
August 30, 2007

In January, John Feal was ready to give his kidney to a perfect stranger. But they weren't a good match.

That bad news led to a series of events that will culminate this morning in a Manhattan hospital and potentially save not one life, but three.

The daisy chain started by Feal includes six surgeons who will conduct three simultaneous kidney transplants at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Feal, 40, of Nesconset, said he will give his kidney to a recipient, whose spouse will give a kidney to a second recipient, whose spouse will give a kidney to Paul Grossfeld. Grossfeld, 56, from New Jersey, was the intended recipient of Feal's kidney, but Feal was a better match for someone else. So the chain, called paired donation, was established.

"I feel great," Feal said Wednesday. "I feel like I've been training for a prizefight."

There were 17,090 kidney transplants in the nation last year, according to the National Kidney Foundation, which does not tally the number of paired donations. But a foundation representative said that procedure is relatively new.

NewYork-Presbyterian confirmed the operations were scheduled to take place but would not identify any of the patients, citing strict patient confidentiality laws.

Feal heads the Fealgood Foundation, an organization that advocates for and gives financial assistance to 9/11 responders and workers who have fallen ill since working at Ground Zero.

Grossfeld, a former Queens resident, found Feal's Web site last year while desperately searching for a donor. A former volunteer paramedic in North Massapequa who has suffered from kidney disease and diabetes for years, Grossfeld e-mail- ed Feal to ask whether he could post an appeal for a kidney to Feal's Web site. He soon got a call back from Feal saying, "You got yourself a kidney."

Grossfeld, appreciative of all Feal has done, said Wednesday, "It's been a rough road."

"I'm ready, though," Grossfeld said. "I'm taking my last dialysis treatment right now."

Feal, who was a consultant for Michael Moore's health-care documentary film "Sicko," began his efforts because of his own pain. Seven days after the terrorist attacks, Feal was working demolition at Ground Zero when an 8,000-pound steel beam fell on his left foot. A former Army veteran, Feal made a tourniquet out of his belt and yelled for help. Soon after treatment for the injury, gangrene set in and he lost half his foot.

As he began to recover, he decided his calling was to help other 9/11 responders and workers, including those with respiratory illnesses from working in the toxic environment.

Feal said his gift of life to an anonymous recipient is his way to shed light on all those responders and workers now in need of lung and kidney transplants themselves.

"I'm committed to 9/11 issues," said Feal, who cites a 9/11 worker he knows who says he now needs a double-lung transplant. "The real reason I'm doing this is to spread awareness of the needs of 9/11 responders. If people on Long Island read this and sign their organ donor on their license, I've done my job."
 
I'm about to go to sleep, and my thoughts are with John Feal. May everything go right, as I'm SURE it will.
 
A Message From 9/11 First Responder And Kidney Donater, John Feal

I wish to thank everyone for their support and well wishes. While I got a chance to make a difference in 3 lives last week while risking my own health, I want you all to know I will not stop there. From 9/11 responders to Americans across the board who need help while our federal govt sits idle, I will stress the message of compassion, love and caring for those less fortunate. I will also continue to be a big pain in the ass to those who should be helping and are not. Jon Gold, you and the truth movement ROCK, ROCK, ROCK, and if anyone needs my other kidney they can have it.

Sincerely,

John Feal
FealGood Foundation Founder
9/11 Responder Advocate
 
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