The number of first aid responders diagnosed with cancer after assisting victims during the September 11 terrorist attacks is expected to grow, according to The New York Daily News.
A study conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Center estimates that 9/11 first responders are 15 percent more likely to develop cancer than others who were not exposed to the Ground Zero toxins.
By August 2013, 1,140 first responders and people who worked, lived, or studied in downtown Manhattan have been diagnosed with 9/11-related cancer by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
New York Police Department Detective Amadeo Pully, 47, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in May.
"You get a lump in your throat when you first have to tell your wife. But I told my family and two kids I'm gonna be fine. We will get through this," Pulley said.
Health experts like Dr. Jim Melius, who is chairman of the steering committee for the WTC Responder Medical Program and a 9/11 Health Watch board member, suggests the numbers of cancer-stricken responders will grow.
"There are more cases out there, because we just know of the people in our government-funded medical programs, not those who have been treated by their private doctors," Melius said. "Because of the carcinogens in the air at Ground Zero, people who were exposed are vulnerable. And with cancer, there is a delay."
Tina Engel, an oncology nurse at North Shore Hospital's WTC clinic in Queens, said that she's already witnessed a growth in cancer diagnoses.
"Sadly enough, I am here just two months, and I have identified a dozen new cancer cases, and I have another 25 patients whose diagnostic test results are pending," Engel said. "The good news is that with the new [Zadroga] federal funding, I get what I need when I need it for our patients. Their biopsies and scans are turned around in a week. Cancer trumps everything."
In addition to the first responders, other city employees like engineer Marty Cervellione of the Design and Construction Department developed respiratory and gastric reflux and eventually gastroesophageal cancer.
"It was always in the back of everyone's mind we were in jeopardy given the contamination down there, but the entire world was calling on you, it felt so good to serve, there was no wanting to escape," Cervellione said.
Nearly 65,000 people were sick following exposure to toxins released after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Victims are now part of a WTC medical monitoring and treatment program in the New York metro area and clinics around the country.
