WTC attacks claim latest victim - four years later

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This is just too sad and horrible...

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/13736313.htm

WTC attacks claim latest victim - four years later LARRY McSHANE

Associated Press NEW YORK - For Zadroga, dying was as simple as

breathing.

The highly decorated New York police detective was heading home from work on

Sept. 11, 2001, when the mind-numbing news came across his car radio: A plane

had flown into the World Trade Center. He rushed back to lower Manhattan, where

the twin 110-story towers had collapsed into a toxic pile of burning rubble.

Zadroga spent 470 hours sifting through the smoldering ruins.

Inhale, exhale.

Twelve-hour shifts, nearly 40 of them.

Inhale, exhale.

More than 28,000 minutes, his only protection a thin paper face mask.

Zadroga barely avoided death when 7 World Trade Center tumbled down around him

hours after the planes hit. The escape was temporary: By the time he was

finished at ground zero, Zadroga was as much a Sept. 11 victim as anyone lost in

the tower stairwells - although his suffering was time-released.

His breathing became labored within weeks, his health deteriorated over

months, he was on disability in just over three years. On Jan. 5, 2006, the

34-year-old Zadroga finally succumbed, betrayed by his failing body; the World

Trade Center had claimed its latest fatality.

Exhale, one last time.

Two years earlier, his wife died of a heart ailment that family members blame

on stress created by Zadroga's fatal illness and his battle with city

bureaucrats over its cause. Their 4-year-old daughter, born shortly after her

father finished work at ground zero, is the newest trade center orphan.

In the days before Zadroga's final breath, his little girl came out of her

father's bedroom and spoke to her grandfather.

" I knew my daddy was really sick, " Tylerann Zadroga told him. " But I didn't

think he'd die this fast. "

---

Zadroga grew up in North Arlington, N.J., where his dad was chief of police in

a blue-collar suburb of 15,000 residents. The youngest of two sons, he was a

non-smoker and a bodybuilder with a rock-solid physique.

" I used to punch him in the arm, just playing around, " recalled his father,

ph. " By the time he was 16, it started to hurt my hand. "

Zadroga graduated from high school, went to a local community college, and

then surprised his father by entering law enforcement. The son swapped his small

town for the big city: He joined the New York police in 1991, and was soon

working the streets of Greenwich Village.

" The apple didn't fall far from the tree, " said Monsignor Fadrowski, a

family friend for nearly two decades. " Just like his father, he was a real

genuine guy ... just a fine man. "

A 1994 New York Times article detailed his work busting beer-drinking teens as

part of the city's " quality of life " crackdown, but Zadroga was destined for

bigger things.

The hard-working cop became a detective, earning 31 medals for excellence and

seven others for meritorious duty during a decade on the job. He married wife

Ronda in 2000, and they moved into their own suburban home two hours north of

the city.

On the morning of Sept. 11, Zadroga was working in the elite Manhattan South

homicide unit - " a pretty prestigious post, " said Palladino, head of the

Detectives Endowment Association. " To be in that unit after 10 years, that's a

testament to his work ethic. "

Zadroga was driving home after finishing an overnight tour when he heard about

the airplane striking the trade center's north tower. He reversed course,

heading toward the billowing smoke that marked the worst terrorist attack ever

on U.S. soil.

Zadroga was soon running for his life when 7 World Trade Center collapsed as

he worked nearby. He spent the next month digging through the pile of concrete

and chemicals and human remains - even as his pregnant wife stayed alone at home

carrying their first child.

" The first weeks were the worst, " said Rev. Jordan, a Franciscan priest

who met Zadroga at ground zero in the days after 9/11. " We're weren't sure what

was going on. The fires were still burning. "

The priest remembered Zadroga as conscientious, hard-working and determined to

rescue his missing brothers. Day after day, often with just two hours of fitful

sleep, Zadroga worked as all hope disappeared and the staggering death toll

climbed: 23 fellow NYPD members, 37 Port Authority police, 343 New York

firefighters, 2,749 people in all.

" Reality set in, " said Jordan. " We were not going to find anybody alive. "

When Zadroga returned to his detective squad in October, his breathing was

already impaired. When daughter Tylerann was born weeks later, his condition was

worsening. By year's end, he was visiting medical specialists to find out what

was wrong while constantly missing work, his father said.

There were few answers. And Zadroga's failing health was creating more

questions: What exactly was wrong? Was there a cure? What would his family do

for money now that his overtime was gone?

With Sept. 11, 2002, approaching, Zadroga was plagued by a constant cough, a

sore throat and an ongoing fight with the NYPD over the cause of his sickness.

His father-in-law, a Florida clergyman, asked Zadroga to write down his feelings

about the past year, hoping to share them with the local congregation.

" They remember the dead, " Zadroga wrote of the NYPD, " but don't want to

acknowledge the sick who are living. ... I can't pay my bills and work doesn't

want to acknowledge that I'm sick, depressed and disgusted. "

Zadroga's eyesight began failing, perhaps from trade center materials embedded

in his eyes, his father said. By the second anniversary, the trade center rattle

in his lungs had Zadroga attached to an oxygen tank.

His wife, dealing with a new baby and a chronically sick husband, fell ill

with what family members insist was a stress-related heart problem. The Zadrogas

moved to Florida, where they found good weather but no good news: Ronda, just

29, died there two years ago.

Zadroga came back north with his daughter, moved back in with his parents. The

NYPD, more than three years after 9/11, finally agreed that he was suffering

from pulmonary disease related to his rescue efforts. Union head Palladino said

the detective had fiberglass in his lungs, and traces of mercury on his brain.

At age 33, the once-proud detective was receiving a disability pension.

In the Jersey shore home where Zadroga now lived with his parents, two things

were happening: Tylerann helped tend to her dying father. And her dying father

helped prepare Tylerann for the inevitable.

" It was hard, " said ph Zadroga. " But she knew. She knew. "

---

Zadroga died at his parents' home on Jan. 5. Although autopsy results

were pending on the exact cause, union officials said he was the first city

police officer whose death was linked to working at ground zero. The NYPD

confirmed he was the only officer to die after reporting 9/11-related health

problems.

His father was approached repeatedly at the wake by co-workers and friends

from the NYPD. The ex-police chief heard story after story, most of them new to

his ears, about his son's exploits in the city.

" He wasn't the type to brag, " the father said of the son. There were tears of

sadness, and hugs of appreciation.

On the day of Zadroga's funeral, Tylerann sat on her grandfather's lap inside

Queen of Peace Church in North Arlington. Nearly 500 people had filled the

church to bid farewell to Zadroga in his old hometown.

Fadrowski, the police chaplain during the elder Zadroga's tenure as police

chief, delivered a moving eulogy. The monsignor called the detective " a

righteous person, " and hailed his work as a police officer.

" He clearly followed his father's example, going into a career in law

enforcement, " Fadrowski said later. " He fulfilled his two goals as an officer:

to protect, and to serve. "

An NYPD color guard was in attendance, along with honor guards from three

northern New Jersey counties. Zadroga's flag-draped casket was brought down the

church steps by a half-dozen fellow officers, as his father and mother stood

side by side.

The grandparents had broken the news of her father's death to Tylerann before

the Mass. Her father, they stressed, had died a hero - and he was reunited with

Ronda. Tylerann, who now lives with her grandparents, seemed to understand more

than most.

" She thinks her dad and mom are stars in heaven, " said her grandfather,

ph, on the day of the funeral. " And she gets mad when there are no stars

out. "

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