Postmortem exam delays 9/11 cop's funeral

Family members of a former NYPD officer who they said took part in the Ground Zero recovery had to hastily reschedule his funeral to Wednesday after city officials insisted they examine his body for evidence of illness caused by toxins in the World Trade Center debris.

George Wong, 48, died March 24 from what his attending physician said on the death certificate was cancer caused by toxins at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a spokesman for the NG Fook funeral home in Chinatown.

Wong worked at the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown and retired with a disability pension in 2006, an NYPD spokesman said. Because his illness was linked by the physician to exposure to toxins at Ground Zero, the city requested that Wong's body be given an external examination, officials with the Department of Health and the Office of The Chief Medical Examiner said.

Officials with the medical examiner's office removed Wong's body from the Chinatown funeral home shortly after his wake Monday night. Wong's body was returned to the funeral home at 9 a.m. Tuesday, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.

His funeral, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was held Wednesday.

The family wouldn't permit an autopsy, Borakove said, insisting that the family was treated courteously.

City officials said Wednesday that there is no scientific link yet between exposure to toxins at Ground Zero and any cancers.

Wong's funeral was held Wednesday as scores of cops from the Fifth Precinct massed outside the NG Fook funeral home.

His casket, draped with an NYPD ceremonial flag, was escorted by an honor guard to a hearse for the trip to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn where he was cremated.

Police bag pipes played the Irish song "Going Home" as the hearse made its way up Mott Street.