Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Monday, April 24, 2006

Local woman’s ‘Trade Center cough’ in national spotlight

By RANDY ERICKSON / Lee Newspapers

TOWN OF HOLLAND, Wis. — National TV recently came calling at Judy Wolff’s home. It wasn’t good news.

On April 13, ABC’s “Nightline” sent a film crew from Minneapolis to get footage of Wolff for its report, “The Curse of Ground Zero.” The report was spurred by the death of a rescue worker from respiratory problems caused by his work at “Ground Zero” in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The death of 34-year-old New York police detective James Zadroga was significant because it was the first time a death was attributed directly to breathing the toxin-laden air while working in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Although the graphic on the “Nightline” report identified Wolff as a “First Responder,” she actually was a Red Cross volunteer when she went to New York City from Oct. 24 to Nov. 15, 2001, to help victims in the weeks after the attacks. Although she wasn’t sifting through rubble at Ground Zero, she was close enough to breathe in enough contaminants to cause a case of what’s become known as “Trade Center cough.”

Other sources in the “Nightline” report bemoaned the lack of federal support for treatment of people who suffered health effects from the aftermath of Sept. 11, but at least the ones who live in New York are getting some medical and financial help.

Compared to them, Wolff is in a much more difficult position.

She can get her treatment expenses paid for if she goes to New York for treatment. She has gone a number of times, thanks to Angel Flight, a program that provides free flights on private airplanes, with several pilots pitching in to take a person with health problems part of the way to the destination.

Wolff has skipped her past couple appointments in New York because she couldn’t afford to pay for lodging there. It takes some work to get the Angel Flight relays lined up, so she has to stay four or five nights if she goes to New York and that’s just not possible financially, she said.

Wolff has been unable to work because of her health problems, but she has been unable to collect workers compensation. New York won’t pay because she doesn’t live there, she said, and Wisconsin won’t pay because her problems stem from work in New York.

Wolff figures “Nightline” picked her because she was recommended by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents the congressional district that includes Ground Zero. Wolff has had frequent contact with Maloney, and figures she referred “Nightline” to Wolff to get a non-New Yorker perspective.

Zadroga’s death is a tragedy for his family, but Wolff said the awareness it is generating about “The Curse of Ground Zero” is a positive thing.

“In a way, I’m glad that it’s finally coming out that people are dying,” she said. “It’s a step forward at least. We’re a lot farther ahead than we were.”

Randy Erickson is editor of the Holmen Courier and Onalaska Community Life newspapers.