1 in 8 Recovery Workers
City Finds Post-9/11 Trauma is Common

By ARI PAUL

Tony Vanaria was an Emergency Medical Service Lieutenant responding to an airplane expected to crash near LaGuardia Airport in early 2003 when he started to shake uncontrollably and was overcome with nausea. The thought of seeing dead bodies, which he had witnessed so many times in his career, paralyzed him.

MARIANNE PIZZITOLA: 'Things have to change.'

"I just fell apart," he recalled last week. "I didn't know what to do."

Common for 9/11 Workers

Mr. Vanaria, who has since retired, has post-traumatic stress disorder, as do one in every eight 9/11 recovery workers. In the days after the attacks, he sifted through body parts in the morgue at Bellevue Hospital and picked through the rubble at the World Trade Center, sometimes for more than 12 hours at a time. When he went back to his regular work with EMS, the sight of human suffering triggered a stench of rotting flesh in his nose so strong it caused diarrhea and left him unable to perform his duties.

The Health Department released a study Aug. 29 showing that 12.4 percent of 9/11 responders have PTSD, and more specifically, that 12.2 percent of firefighters, 11.6 percent of EMS workers and 6.2 percent of police officers doing rescue and recovery work have the condition. Only 4 percent of the general population has PTSD at any one time.

'I JUST FELL APART': Retired Emergency Medical Service Lieut. Tony Vanaria suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his recovery work after 9/11. A recent Health Department study showed that one in eight recovery workers suffered from the condition.

"People with PTSD are also more likely to suffer from depression and substance abuse," said Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden in a statement. "The [World Trade Center Health] Registry helps us gauge the persistence of these problems over time. It also helps us inform the public and the medical community about the health effects of 9/11, so that people can get the best possible care."

Warned Against Filing

Mr. Vanaria said that when he went to file for workers' compensation in 2003, he was told by then-Capt. Jay Swithers, who is responsible for handling EMS employees' workers' compensation cases, that his pay would be withheld if he filed.

The Law Department fought Mr. Vanaria's claim, but a Worker's Compensation judge ruled in his favor June 7. While Mr. Vanaria emerged victorious, he remains angry about the ordeal.

"I don't feel vindicated," he said. "I had to be abused first. I felt for the years I put in I was treated like a piece of garbage."

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the Uniformed FDNY EMS Retirees Association, said EMS workers involved in 9/11 recovery suffered PTSD acutely because their work was especially gruesome, such as trying to organize body parts in morgues.

"They weren't meant to see this," she said. "This was like putting them in the middle of a war zone."

'Things Must Change'

While Ms. Pizzitola was pleased to see the Health Department recognize the effects 9/11 recovery work had on first-responders, cases like Mr. Vanaria's kept her skeptical.

"There are not enough Workers' Compensation-approved doctors," she said. "And the Workers' Comp Board does not want to reimburse them. They've got to do something to help. Things have got to change. Do I think this report will help? Absolutely not."