He survived 9/11. Then Ground Zero came for him years later

BS BULLETIN:

Volunteer EMT Mordechai Shedrowitzky rushed to Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks and spent hours surrounded by thick World Trade Center dust and debris.
Years later, worsening respiratory problems were ultimately connected to his Ground Zero exposure and required major surgery.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, more than 10,000 FDNY members alone are certified with at least one physical condition related to the attacks.

Mordechai Shedrowitzky survived September 11, 2001.

But September 11 wasn’t finished with him.

The volunteer EMT was among the thousands who answered the call after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, heading into Lower Manhattan on the evening of the attacks to help.

Twenty-five years later, he is still living with what he breathed there.

Shedrowitzky told Fox News Digital that as his ambulance approached Manhattan, the scene became almost unimaginable.

There was no electricity. Debris swirled through the tunnel. Once his crew reached the South Street Seaport, the dust was so overwhelming that he remembers the ambulance engine sputtering.

At the time, Shedrowitzky and the other responders weren’t focused on what the air might eventually do to them.

They had people to help.

Then they went home.

Shedrowitzky thought the danger was over.

It wasn’t.

His asthma gradually became worse. The coughing became more serious. He needed steroids. Respiratory infections followed.

Eventually there were hospitalizations.

“It took many years for us to realize that what was going on with my health was probably related to 9/11,” Shedrowitzky told Fox.

Doctors eventually diagnosed him with tracheobronchomalacia, a condition in which the walls of the windpipe and major airways weaken, allowing them to collapse during breathing.

His condition was recognized as 9/11-related through the World Trade Center Health Program.

In 2024, Shedrowitzky underwent major surgery to reinforce his trachea and main bronchi.

Today, he says he’s doing considerably better.

But his story is far from unique.

A new FDNY report marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks shows just how long September 11’s death and disease toll has continued to grow.

More than 15,000 FDNY members were exposed to World Trade Center dust, chemicals, gases, fibers and other contaminants during the rescue and recovery operation.

Today, 10,562 FDNY members are certified with at least one 9/11-related physical health condition.

Another 4,496 have at least one certified mental-health condition.

And 4,257 FDNY members currently have cancer certifications.

The World Trade Center Health Program extends far beyond the FDNY, providing monitoring and treatment for responders and survivors exposed to the disaster and its aftermath.

Doctors continue studying the long-term consequences because illnesses can emerge many years after the initial exposure.

For Shedrowitzky, the consequences touched nearly every part of his life.

He is a father of six and grandfather of two. At his worst, breathing problems interfered with things as basic as talking to and lifting his children.

Yet his message 25 years later isn’t about himself. It’s directed at the other people who were there. If you’re experiencing health problems, he says, don’t wait. September 11 may have happened a quarter-century ago.

For thousands of the people who breathed that air, it isn’t over.

MY QUICK TAKE

We promised we would never forget.

This is the part of that promise that doesn’t fit neatly into an anniversary ceremony.

The firefighters, cops, EMTs, construction workers and ordinary Americans who went toward that nightmare didn’t stop paying the price when the smoke disappeared from television.

Some discovered the bill years later. More than 4,000 FDNY members with cancer certifications.

More than 10,000 with physical illnesses.

And one EMT who went home thinking he’d survived 9/11 — only to discover that he’d carried a piece of Ground Zero home inside his lungs.

Twenty-five years later, remembering the people we lost also means remembering the people we’re still losing.

DBS WIRE SOURCES