One 9/11 hero's tale of tragedy

Timothy Keller rushed to help at WTC; he died penniless earlier this year

BY RIDGELY OCHS | STAFF WRITER

September 4, 2005

First of a series

EMT Timothy Keller would have understood why two of those closest to him had to leave halfway through his funeral.

Hunched over a plastic tube in the back of an ambulance outside St. James Church in Seaford, emergency medical technicians Karin DeShore and Bonnie Giebfried sucked on albuterol to open up their seizing airways.

It wasn't the church incense that caused their asthma attacks on that rainy June day, they said: It was the loss of their friend. Timmy - the jokester, the big guy with the big smile - was one of them, he was part of their private support group. They suffered from the same respiratory ailments he had: They were together when the Twin Towers crumbled on Sept. 11, 2001, and they breathed the same hot, thick, black air.

Keller, who had been an EMT with the New York City Fire Department and a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Levittown where he lived, died at age 41. In clinical terms, the Nassau County medical examiner's office said his death was the result of "congestive heart failure due to hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease and associated conditions, [including] ... chronic asthmatic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema."

But his friends and colleagues said they know the cause of his death. As the Rev. John McCartney said to the several hundred at the funeral: "Tim is a casualty of September 11. His death merely took longer to occur."

Along with countless other men and women that morning, Keller raced to the Twin Towers with the goal of saving lives. In the end, he couldn't save himself. Nearly four years later, he died almost penniless in his Levittown apartment, unable to take care of himself, supported by his fellow EMTs.

After Sept. 11, he coughed up dirt and stones for two days. Like DeShore, Giebfried and thousands of others who responded, Keller went on to develop asthma and other severe respiratory problems that left him gasping for breath or sent him into coughing fits.

"I am the oldest one of them all. Somehow I thought I would be the first to die," said DeShore, 60, of the loyal group of friends. She retired as captain in the city Fire Department's Emergency Medical Services in 2002 because of severe respiratory problems associated with Sept. 11. "Sooner or later, will this overtake all of us who were down there? It has started now. Which one will be next?"

Little compensation for his suffering

Friends paint a portrait of a man who clung to his EMT job until he was unable to walk across the room without going into a coughing fit and turning blue. Finally, he had to quit in December 2004. "Timmy would have gone to work with his arms hanging on by threads. What's more desperate than not breathing? That was Timmy," said Marianne Pizzitola, pension coordinator for Local 2507 of the Uniformed EMTs and Paramedics of the New York City Fire Department, Keller's union. His friends also describe a man living on unemployment checks, with no health insurance or drug coverage.

Although diagnosed with severe chronic asthmatic bronchitis, severe chronic sinusitis and severe obstructive sleep apnea, records show, Keller was denied workers' compensation and line-of-duty-injury benefits from the city. City and state officials said they cannot comment on specific cases, but defend the complicated task of trying to determine who should get compensation.

Through a different city agency, Keller was granted three-quarters disability pay in January. But by the time he died six months later, he still had not received his first full check, Pizzitola said. Money became so tight he relied on food donations from his union and the kindness of his landlord, who didn't evict Keller, a single parent, and his son David, 19, although at one point David said they were $10,000 behind in rent.

Thousands of stories have emerged out of the horror of Sept. 11 about men and women who risked their lives to save others and miraculously escaped death. Keller's story is far different. His is a story about an unsung hero, a man who did everything he was asked to that day, and, because of it, his friends and colleagues said, eventually lost his health, his job and his life.

Despite $7 billion amassed for Sept. 11 families and survivors, Keller's health and financial problems are not unique. A study by the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program, a federally funded program following 12,000 Sept. 11 responders, found last year that half of more than 1,000 examined had persistent respiratory and mental health problems. "We remain surprised and disturbed at how chronic the World Trade Center consequences are," said Dr. Robin Herbert of Mt. Sinai Medical Center, which administers the program.

"We're still seeing a record number of new patients as well as follow-up visits for respiratory and mental health issues," said Dr. David Prezant, deputy chief medical officer for FDNY. Prezant said that between July of last year and June of this year, the fire department's Bureau of Health Services has seen about 2,000 firefighters and EMTs with respiratory complaints and another 3,500 with mental health issues connected to Sept. 11 - not including those already on medical leave.

A losing battle for their benefits

Most firefighters and police officers, whose benefits are handled differently, appear to be getting the medical help and disability benefits they need, according to interviews. But an untold number of EMTs and other workers - union and elected officials say it's in the hundreds - find themselves sick and unable to work with little or no health insurance or other benefits.

Bill Gleason, 44, of Hicksville, an EMT lieutenant who retired from DeShore's 46th Battalion in April, said he arrived at Ground Zero the night of Sept. 11 and worked there for seven months. Two years later, he had developed severe respiratory problems. He was approved last December for a line-of-duty disability pension, which has not been finalized. He said he is awaiting a decision on whether he will be approved for workers' compensation. "I have seen five doctors in the past two years and all five have said this is a permanent problem. But workers' comp keeps making me jump through all these hoops," he said. "The problem is I have no money coming in.

"To hear that Timmy had died - what a kick in the head. It's not us; it's our families that are going to suffer from this," Gleason said.