For 28 days, he worked amid the smoke, dust and foul smells, retrieving body parts and cutting through the steel wreckage so that more remains could be found. But four years later, he's sorry he did it. Only 38 years old, he's debilitated by a host of illnesses his doctors believe were caused by his exposure to the conditions at Ground Zero. But New York's workers' compensation system has refused to pay his claims for medical expenses and lost wages.
"They took away any good feeling about what I did down there," he told me. "Look what I did to my family and myself. I wouldn't feel that way if I weren't being made to feel I'm either lying or lazy."
Hundreds of Ground Zero responders are suffering from illnesses they say are related to their post-9/11 efforts. But their treatment by the state's workers' compensation system shows how poorly the system works for all workers who suffer from job-related illness.
The state requires employers to take out insurance policies on their workers and workers' compensation is supposed to reimburse them for medical costs and lost wages resulting from injuries or illnesses acquired on the job. The system tends to pay up promptly for injuries caused by on-the-job accidents. But proving you have a work-related disease is an excruciating process. It takes months to get a hearing before an administrative judge; insurance companies routinely
dispute claims and stall to keep from paying; and cases typically drag on for two to three years.
Meanwhile, people like the Ground Zero responders, many of whom were volunteers and many of whom have developed respiratory problems, grow sicker, lose jobs and medical benefits, deplete their savings, and feel humiliated by a system that accuses them of lying about the cause of their ailments. A social worker at Mount Sinai, which runs programs to monitor and treat World Trade Center responders, said she didn't know a single person in the program -- out of 1,600 who have undergone treatment -- whose Workers' Compensation claim was approved on the first go-round. Most eventually get something, but the protracted wrangling takes a bitter toll on them and their families.
The assurances by the Environmental Protection Administration that the air quality was OK, was more political in nature than was backed by evidence. Air sampling didn't occur regularly until several days later. Administration officials wanted to assure the populace that all was well despite the tragedy.
Piccuro came down with a bad cough soon after his work at Ground Zero. But it wasn't until August 2004 that he started developing more serious problems, including vomiting, weakness, body aches, breathing difficulty, migraines, swollen lymph nodes and a recurring rash. Doctors at Mount Sinai diagnosed him with chronic bronchitis, chronic rhinitis (constriction of the nose and throat), gastro-esophageal reflux disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, and other illnesses, and warned that he's at risk for contracting throat cancer.
But after filing a workers' compensation claim and waiting 10 months for a hearing, even though his doctors said his ailments are Ground Zero-related, the administrative judge said he had failed to prove a Ground Zero connection.
No longer able to work, Piccuro says he owes more than $70,000 in medical bills and needs $2,000 worth of medicines each month. He said he is appealing the judge's ruling.
It just happens that, because of 9/11, a large and visible group of workers is battling the workers' compensation system right now. But it's been a bad system for a long time. Among its other shortcomings, New York's maximum benefit for lost wages -- $400 a week -- is among the lowest in the country.
Gov. George Pataki has proposed a small increase in the wage benefit, even as he wants to reduce the length of time workers could collect it. Meanwhile, he's doing nothing to improve the way the system works. He could start by using his authority as governor to pressure the insurance companies to treat the Ground Zero claims quickly and generously.
Weren't these folks heroes, too?
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