The father of 9/11 first responder James Zadroga — an NYPD detective who d🐷ied from respiratory disease — broke down in tears Monday after a ral🐟ly near Ground Zero calling on Congress to extend the law named after his son.
The law provides health benefits and compensation to people who fell🥂 ill after participating in the recovery operations who fell ill.
Joseph Zadroga stood with Mayor de Blasio, Sen. Kirsten Gil𒁃librand and other elected officials who are pushing to retain the law for another 25 years. It is scheduled to expire entirely in 2016.
“I just want everybody out there, the victims who got sick, to have the health care that they deserve, because Jimmy didn’t get it,” Zadroga said, weeping after recalling howﷺ his son could barely walk up stairs in the last days of his life.
“Jimmy did not get the health care that he deserved, and I don’t 𝓡want🌞 other families to go through what we did,” the dad said.
So far, 2,900 people have been diagnosed with 𝓡cancers caused or made worse by the toxic ꧃air in the aftermath of the attacks.
Of the 800 firefighters and more than 550 cops afflicted with 9/11-related i🅰llnesses, 130 have died.