Detective's Dad: ME Tilted Death Finding;

Insists It's WTC-Related
Detective's Dad: ME Tilted Death Finding


It wasn't the toxic chemicals or the biohazardous pieces of human remains from Ground Zero found in Det. James Zadroga's lungs that killed him, Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch told the dead man's family, but rather his abuse of prescription drugs.

JAMES ZADROGA: Furor over cause of death. Neither Detective Zadroga's father nor advocates for first-responders believed him, however.

In an Oct. 19 meeting with the Zadroga family at its New Jersey home, Dr. Hirsch explained that the death of a non-smoker who died of pulmonary injuries in 2006 at age 34, was in no way related to his hundreds of hours working at Ground Zero, but rather resulted from crushing his prescription drugs, mixing the particles with a liquid and injecting the fluid into his bloodstream. He told the family that those particles penetrated his lungs.

Disagreed With N.J. ME

The conclusion contradicted a New Jersey Medical Examiner's findings and those of the NYPD Pension Fund Medical Board, which both determined Detective Zadroga's ailments were due to exposure to toxic chemicals at Ground Zero.

JOSEPH ZADROGA: 'Floored' by ME's claim. "I was floored that day he told me that," said Joseph Zadroga, the Detective's father, in a phone interview Oct. 26.

He asked the ME to look straight at both Detective Zadroga's photo and his six-year-old daughter and explain that the death was due to drug use. But Dr. Hirsch wouldn't do that, he recalled.

"I tried to talk, but he wouldn't listen to me at all," Mr. Zadroga said. "I said, 'you got all this paperwork here saying he's got this, this, this in his lungs. And he said, 'I don't know, they're just there.' At that point I knew it was useless to talk to him."

'Mean-Spirited Act'

Mr. Zadroga said he showed photos of his son's lungs, which were 90-percent black, to the ME. Dr. Hirsch's reaction, he claimed, was that those were normal lungs. Mr. Zadroga also said the ME offered no evidence of track marks on his son's arms or collapsed veins to substantiate the claim that he was an intravenous drug user.

The Zadroga family's attorney, Michael Barasch, noted that prior to 9/11 James Zadroga was drug-tested nearly every month as a member of the street crime and homicide apprehension units, and that he always tested negative for illicit drugs. He added that even if Dr. Hirsch's assertion was correct, it was indisputable that Detective Zadroga had been prescribed those same drugs for a 9/11-related illness.

DR. CHARLES HIRSCH: Contradicts N.J. ME. "It was the most mean-spirited, disgraceful act I've ever seen by a doctor," Mr. Barasch said.

Calls to the ME's office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino questioned the ME's initial denial this month that Detective Zadroga's death was 9/11-related, noting that Dr. Hirsch had not personally inspected the body.

'Junk Science'

"If there's junk science, that's what it is," said Marianne Pizzitola, president of the Uniformed FDNY EMS Retirees Association, which advocates for emergency responders injured due to their work at the World Trade Center site.

Linking Detective Zadroga's name to drug use might harm the passage of James Zadroga Act, a bill in the U.S. Congress that would secure Federal funding for medical treatment for 9/11 rescue workers, Mr. Barasch said.

Ms. Pizzitola, like Detective Zadroga's father, believed Dr. Hirsch's position was based on Mayor Bloomberg's denial that 9/11 first-responders have gotten sick from their work. The Mayor and Dr. Hirsch have maintained that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is an independent and non-political entity. In 1989, Dr. Hirsch told this newspaper, "We have done things that have made this office more humane to the people that we serve."

But Ms. Pizzitola thought the case of Detective Zadroga proved otherwise.

"He needs to retire," she said of Dr. Hirsch. "Fresh blood with a realistic mind needs to work in there, because this is an insult to everyone who worked at Ground Zero."