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A survivor's story of Sept. 11th

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | MNaanes@am-ny.com

September 9, 2008

Jim Riches spent six months looking for the body of his firefighter son who was killed in the North Tower, all the while breathing in toxic dust and fumes.

Years later, in 2005, the deputy fire chief who never got the sniffles suddenly became ill with flu-like symptoms, which landed him in the hospital where doctors told his family he had only hours to live. Placed in a coma, he miraculously survived, yet still feels the effects of hundreds of hours at the World Trade Center site.

"When I recovered I had to learn how to walk, how to talk," he said. "It was like starting all over again."

The death toll from the World Trade Center attacks continues to grow every year as people die from Sept. 11-related illnesses. An estimated 90,000 people were involved in recovery operations for several months, and the number of rescue and recovery workers who have become ill is estimated in the thousands. The official death toll stands at 2,751.

Responders have been living with illnesses ranging from stress disorders to respiratory problems to cancer. The entire toll of Sept. 11 related illness is not expected be clearly evident until 10th anniversary.

"The people are sick -- there's no two ways about it and they're going to get sicker," Riches said. "After 9/11 when everything happened everyone said never forget. Well it seems like they've pretty much forgotten about 9/11, and I'd like [people] to remember the people that rushed down there and remember the people that died that day."

Riches, who worked at Ground Zero from Sept. 11, 2001 to May 2002, suffered stroke symptoms in 2005. An athlete and 30-year fire department veteran, he was forced to retire in 2007 because of his severely diminished lung capacity.

"I was still young I have three other sons in the fire department," he said. "I wanted to stay and look over them ... keep them safe, but they forced me out -- they said there's no way I could ever go back to being a fire officer."

Riches cannot leave the house without an inhaler and gets short of breath on hot days and while walking up the stairs. He worries about living to see his three other firefighter sons and grandchildren grow up.

"You wake up at night or during the day, and you feel like you're under water and you can't come up and get air the air won't go in," he said. "Every morning I get up and kiss the floor and say thank God I'm alive. I think I got sent back to let people know we're sick and it's [the government's] responsibility to provide health coverage for the people who got sick."

Many sick first responders have spoken out for recognition and better health care programs and compensation for the sick and dying and their families. Members of the Feal Good Foundation, a group devoted to responders, are in Washington D.C. this week to rally for legislation before Congress that would pay for health care for ill responders and people who lived and worked around Ground Zero.

Keith LeBow, a iron worker who spent 100 hours in the rescue effort at Ground Zero and a member of the Feal Good Foundation, hopes that the growing list of sick and dying first responders remains on the forefront of people's minds on the anniversary. LeBow, 45, suffers from many lung and skin illnesses and worries he won't see 50.

"People are concentrating on that day, and I always say to them instead of concentration on that day how about concentrating on the people that were there?" he said. "We can't do anything about the past, but we can change the future."