November 29, 2007

Insanely Callous 9/11 Medical Examiner

Maybe some of us with a bit of spare time can write or call the Representatives below to give them support:

Hero cop who died after WTC work
denied memorial honor roll place
BY KIRSTEN DANIS and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, November 27th 2007, 4:00 AM
Mayor Bloomberg Monday turned his back on a hero cop who died after working at Ground Zero but was denied a place on the memorial honor roll because he didn't arrive at The Pile until two days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bloomberg also flatly rejected a renewed call for a special panel to set scientific and legal standards for reviewing the deaths of 9/11 workers like Officer James Godbee.
[…] the city's medical examiner, Dr. Charles Hirsch, told Godbee's widow her husband's death would remain classified as from "natural" causes because he was not at the site on the day of the terror attacks.
[…] The former Marine got to Ground Zero two days later and spent hundreds of hours working in the toxic stew. A physical fitness buff, Godbee was felled by a heart attack in December 2004. He was 44 years old.
[…] "The medical examiner was asked to rule on whether or not the legal definition of death is homicide," he said. "This is strictly the legal definition based on what the law is, and the medical examiner made a finding. They did not look at what the actual cause of death was."
That legalistic approach dismayed Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, both Manhattan Democrats, and Vito Fossella, a Republican from Staten Island.
"It seems clear that an otherwise healthy man who worked for countless hours on The Pile at Ground Zero and who later developed sarcoidosis and died should have his case heard by the city's medical examiner," they wrote.
"At the very least, there should not be an arbitrary 'cutoff' for who can be considered a victim of 9/11. Many who are sick now were not at Ground Zero the moment the towers collapsed - but their suffering and medical conditions are real." http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/11/27/2007-11-27_hero_cop_who_died_after_wtc_work_denied_-1.html

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