I belong to a 9/11 survivor's group. This group is composed of people still suffering from the events of 9/11.

No matter what you believe about the events of 9/11, I will attest to one fact that can not be ignored.

Men and women who risked their lives working and doing their civic and HUMAN duty, are still suffering and dying today.

What year is it now?

We feel ABANDONED by our cities, and our government. So many of us have filed for disability or workers compensation, only to become another forgotten piece of paper that will "cost the city or government money that they don't have". You know, the money that they need to wage war over seas.

Below my note here, is a list of names and stories from our group.

Do not forget these people. Please help me raise awareness, and pass this on to your respective lists. Please.

Thank You,
Craig 9/11

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I never complained, or sued, nor will I, but in case I die...


Detective Steve Heberling has suffered headaches and bloody noses
for five years.

Daniel Arrigo has lost 44% of his lung capacity.

Denise Bellingham...

They were among the 40,000 who stepped forward for New York and
America after 9/11, and they speak here of the price they paid for
serving. Their stories are not unusual. No, they are typical among
the more than 12,000 men and women who were sickened by breathing
the toxic cloud that shrouded Ground Zero. They tell of damaged
lungs and psyches, of fears of worse to come and of beliefs that the
cloud has brought on cancers and may bring death.
They feel betrayed by a government that said the air was safe and
cast aside by officials who failed to address the sweeping nature of
the resulting epidemic. Above all, these personal accounts stand as
an indictment of a neglectful city and country, which must now right
the terrible wrong of forgetting those who did the extraordinary at
great personal cost.

===================================================

A smell you never forget

For 20 years, I served as a detective with the New York Police
Department, and I retire tomorrow at half pay without medical
disability.

I can still smell the debris of the Fresh Kills landfill. After you
stepped off the bus for your 12-hour shift, the stench was just
enormous, and as you walked around, you would see bubbling
whirlpools. Fifteen minutes in, I would have splitting headaches.
I'd go to the tents, where conveyer belts would bring debris to pick
through for human remains.

For years after, I had headaches, and I still have bloody noses and
sinus problems. I never complained, or sued, nor will I, but in case
I die, I've kept everything since that day, every news article, so
maybe my two kids will get some compensation for my life.

Steve Heberling, 44, Brewster, N.Y.

==================================================

'Coughing up blood'

I was at the north tower as an Emergency Medical Services paramedic
lieutenant when it collapsed. We ran up West St. We started setting
up forward triage, and we treated people for the first three or four
hours. When 7 World Trade Center came down, we started to treat sick
responders. We were on site until 9 a.m. the next day. The air was
indescribable.

We worked there until Oct. 1. You couldn't eat anything that wasn't
covered with dust. We had paper masks, but they were no good.

Condensation from breathing turned the mask into mud. It was worse
to breathe with it on. We got respirators about a week into it, but
they were not fit-tested, they just came in boxes and we grabbed one
that might fit.

I worked more than 300 hours at Ground Zero. I considered it a thank
you to America, a chance to do something for my country and for my
fellow New Yorkers and for my co-workers who were buried in the
rubble. We never expected anything to go wrong. Every day we were
told the air was safe to breathe. Working down there as a team gave
us healing. We could feel all the angels, all the people who had
died there.

I started coughing up black mucus, and there was black stuff coming
out my ears and when I blew my nose. In October 2001, I started
coughing up blood clots and went to the FDNY Bureau of Health
Services. They gave me an inhaler and said they would monitor it. I
was also seeing my own doctor, who diagnosed reactive airways
distress syndrome. I would get a sinus infection every six to eight
weeks. I also got urinary tract infections. I also had post-
traumatic stress syndrome. In 2003, I was diagnosed with acid
reflux. I had a lump in my throat and couldn't swallow. I used
prednisone for my lungs.

A few years before 9/11, I had contracted hepatitis C on the job.
The FDNY did physicals in December 2001, and my liver values were
normal. But they started increasing. In 2004, I had a liver biopsy,
and the hepatitis was at stage 2. I was taking interferon and
ribovirin, but the interferon seemed to make my lung condition worse.

Every time I went to the pulmonologist, my vital function was
decreasing. Now I'm down to 58% lung capacity. Because of the
hepatitis C, nothing was working for me. The prednisone was
increasing my hepatitis C viral load so I can't treat my lungs,
which have scarring. I had to choose which to aggressively treat. I
decided to treat the hepatitis C because that can affect other
organs. I'm looking at 72 weeks of treatment. There's a 50% chance
of eliminating the virus, then the options are interferon to keep
liver damage from progressing, probably for the rest of my life.
Last week, I was granted a three-quarters disability pension based
on the hepatitis C.

Denise Bellingham, 57, Medford, L.I.

==================================================

Leaving my kids

I was at the site as a volunteer EMT for three days - on 9/11, and
then on the 13th and 14th. I was working triage from a deli as WTC 7
burned and fell. Going down there that morning, I left my two
children at home. At the time, they thought I was dead, but when you
have a job you are trained to do, and you do it well, then you just
go do it.

And now, I've been officially disabled since 2003. I have acid
reflux, migraine and sinus headaches, asthma, depression, post-
traumatic stress disorder, shingles and flashbacks, but no health
coverage because I was a volunteer.

I don't have lung disease from smoking. I don't have lung disease
from a meth lab. I don't have it from doing something I shouldn't
have been doing. I have it from the World Trade Center. What
nobody's talking about is the next time something happens. You can't
just run into buildings anymore. Those who did are on Death Row and
being punished for what we did.

Reggie Cervantes, 45, Kansas City, Kan.

==================================================

Running out of time

As an American, as a New Yorker, I thought I had an obligation to
help. Somebody demolishes a building in my city, it's my duty to
clean it up. I'm a union worker. But now, I'm living through a
nightmare. The city employees got taken care of, but we didn't get
anything.

Each time I go to Mount Sinai Medical Center, I lose more of my
lung. The first time, it was 21% gone. The next, 33%. Now they say
I've lost 44%. I can't even walk up a flight of stairs. I've got
three kids and can't afford to take time off work, but I'm worried
about the future, about my wife and my children. The lung specialist
I went to couldn't diagnose my problem. He didn't know what to say
to me, except to guarantee that in 10 years I wouldn't be walking
around.

Daniel Arrigo, 51, Staten Island

==================================================

Denied

I worked more than 100 hours doing search and recovery as a police
officer. I was in the lobby when the building started collapsing,
and I was there through the end of the cleanup. Now I have post-
traumatic stress disorder. I've got acid reflux. I've got asthma and
upper-respiratory infections. I can't go near large buildings
anymore.

The Police Medical Board, four times now, denies medical liability.
They say my diseases are not related to the World Trade Center, or
that my paperwork isn't good enough, or that I need to go to their
doctors instead of mine. I just want to be home with my kids. The
money doesn't matter now. I'm never responding to a terrorist attack
again: I'm just going to go right home with my wife and kids.

Robert Curcio, 34, Staten Island

==================================================

Whitman's people lied

When we went out to The Pile, initially all we got was a Home Depot-
type dust mask. Eventually, they gave us sturdier ones. I worked
there from 9/11 until May as an EMS lieutenant and put in well over
100 hours.

Two years later, in March 2004, I had my first real asthma attack.
That same month, I was forced into the process of retirement.

Christie Whitman's EPA people lied: They said the air was safe.
Eventually, I got three-quarters disability, but the city had played
these little technicalities. The lawyer for the city said that
because the department hadn't filed a form, there was no proof that
the accident I was claiming for had actually occurred. The judge had
to instruct the lawyer for the city that it can be taken for a given
that 9/11 had happened. Because I did my duty on 9/11 and in the
recovery operations, I'm now totally and permanently disabled.

William Gleason, 45, Hicksville, L.I.

==================================================

An incurable disease

On 9/11, I was a captain in the NYPD. I was home with my family when
the attack came, and as the first tower fell, I left my pregnant
wife and 3-year-old daughter. Both cried, pleading for me not to
leave. I went with only one request to the city: Take care of my
family.

I retired in 2004 at the age of 42, believing myself healthy. Within
nine months, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is caused
by asbestos, smoldering steel and benzene, all present at Ground
Zero. Since then, most of my time has been spent at Sloan-Kettering,
getting stem-cell transplants and chemotherapy. And now, after 20
years of service, I'm left with a half-pay pension and little more
than an incurable, life-threatening disease and partial paralysis in
both hands. Yet not a single city, state or federal agency will
acknowledge the air at Ground Zero might be a problem.

Patrick DeSarlo, 44, New City, N.Y.

==================================================

Forgotten

I volunteered first from the Red Cross then later on with the
Salvation Army, working 12-hour shifts with no protection. While
most of my duties left me inside, I was exposed to the air going
between buildings and as I brought coffee and warm clothes to the
men on The Pile.

Ever since, I've had chronic sinus infections, and many other
volunteers have worse. We weren't paid workers, so we can't retire
or go on disability, and there's no way to pay our medical bills. We
gladly did what we did - but we are now forgotten.

Kathy Davy, 45, Manhattan