Ailing Ground Zero vet urges other sick 9/11 responders to file NY claim

More than two decades after Antone Frank, a 44-year veteran of the Greenport Volunteer Fire Department, responded to the smoldering ashes at Ground Zero came the discovery he had hoped would never come.

A doctor found a cancerous tumor on Frank's throat. It spread to part of his tongue and mouth — an ailment Frank believes is connected to his rescue and recovery work in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

While surgeons last month removed the tumor, along with Frank's tonsils and lymph nodes, the medical scare prompted him to file a claim with the New York State Workers Compensation Board. And he wants other 9/11 first responders to follow suit and register with the board before the Sept. 11, 2022, deadline.

"I'm hoping that everybody takes this advice and just gets checked out," said Frank, 62, of Greenport. "You never know what's going to happen. I never knew that this was going happen. And other people need to know this, too." 

To preserve the right to receive benefits such as lost wages — even for those not yet sick — anyone who participated in the rescue, recovery and cleanup of the World Trade Center between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 12, 2002, must register with the state compensation board within the next two months. 

"This deadline is for any first responder who volunteered at the World Trade Center site in any capacity that's not part of a specific pension system like the FDNY or the NYPD," said Beth Jablon, of the Garden City-based firm of Sullivan Papain Block McGrath Coffinas & Cannavo, which helped Frank file his claim. "This is really for the person, mostly on Long Island and I would say out of the city, that volunteered at the site … So whether you're a volunteer firefighter with New Hyde Park Fire Department or with the American Red Cross, or maybe you're a certified paramedic, and you went down there, these are all the types of people who need to be aware of this deadline."

State officials said they had no information on the number of Long Islanders or volunteer firefighters who have registered to date with the board.

Filing with the compensation board also provides individuals who applied previously and were denied benefits the opportunity to have their claims reconsidered. Initially, individuals who participated in the rescue, recovery or cleanup operations had until Sept. 11, 2010, to file a notice of participation. This is the third extension of the deadline.

Registration could help an individual who becomes permanently disabled and can't work as a result of an illness linked to the toxic air at Ground Zero to qualify for a World Trade Center accidental disability presumption. Signing up also can help beneficiaries become eligible for an accidental death benefit if the applicant dies.

Filing with the state board, Jablon said, does not preclude individuals from filing a claim with the federal Victims Compensation Fund, which provides financial assistance with medical monitoring, treatment and medication, and helps compensate victims for the financial impact of 9/11-related illnesses. People receiving lost wages from the fund, however, would not receive similar funds from the state board, she said.

To be eligible for the federal compensation fund, applicants must prove they were in the exposure zone, or along the debris-removal route, from the time of the attacks through May 30, 2002. They also must have a 9/11-related illness or injury certified by the WTC Health Program, including nearly 70 kinds of cancer and a host of respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses

The Workers Compensation Board, Jablon said, has some significant differences with the Victims Compensation Fund, including an extended time period that victims spent around Ground Zero and no employer verification or signed affidavits required to prove a claim.

"There's no harm in just filling the paperwork out," she said. "It doesn't take a lot of time. It's all about protecting your rights in the future because there's no guarantee that they're going to extend the deadline again."

Frank, who spent three days volunteering at Ground Zero in 2001, said first responders at the time never worried that the air in lower Manhattan was dangerous, or would cause health ailments 20 years later. 

"I didn't know and nobody knew," he said. "We just went down there to do what we had to do."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.