23 years after 9/11, World Trade Center Health Program expands to more Flight 93 first responders
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) -- On the day America marked 23 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, more people who helped in the aftermath became eligible to enroll in the World Trade Center Health Program.
The program expanded enrollment to include additional first responders who helped at the Flight 93 site and the Pentagon.
A retired law enforcement member and author who volunteered to respond to the scene of the crash in Shanksville shared what this expansion means to her and other heroes as she battles her own health issues, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Remembering 9/11
Bells rang 40 times on Thursday to honor the victims who died when United Flight 93 plummeted into a Somerset County field on Sept. 11, 2001, after passengers and crew members voted to fight back against a group of hijackers.
"It's a hard day, but it gets easier in a different way," said Lillie Leonardi, who was the community affairs specialist in the FBI's Pittsburgh division.
Leonardi still remembers the smell of jet fuel and burning pine and the eerie quiet.
"It looked like something out of a horror movie that you would watch. But the quiet and the smell were the worst," Leonardi said.
"It creeps into your subconscious, or what the trees looked like. There were a lot of humanities that once looked like you and I," she said.
Leonardi also recounts seeing a legion of angels protecting the crash site in Shanksville, which she wrote about in her book "In the Shadow of a Badge: a Spiritual Memoir."
"That day was horrible, but I had an extraordinary event that transpired me for the rest of my life," she said. "There's an image of some painting that I found with rows and rows and rows of angels. And that's what it looked like."
In the aftermath of the crash, Leonardi became the link between law enforcement and the victims' families. Being in that field changed her forever.
"A few years later, I started getting pretty sick. I got PTSD and had to go through a lot of therapy. I've dealt with a lot of health issues. But the hardest one is depression when it hits. I have respiratory sinus, and I have esophagitis issues," Leonardi said.
Around 150 people, including Leonardi, who responded in Shanksville have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program. But more than 1,000 responded to the crash site in the aftermath.
Now, more people who assisted at the Flight 93 and Pentagon sites are eligible for the program, including employees of any federal agency and members of the uniformed services.
"They were exposed to the same jet fuel and all those carcinogens," said attorney Michael Barasch, managing partner at Barasch & McGarry law firm in Manhattan.
"It boggles the mind that up until today, these responders were not eligible. So, I'm so thankful now that all responders are eligible. But you have to enroll," he added.
Barasch represents dozens of first responders who helped at the Flight 93 site. He explained how PTSD impacts their lives 23 years after the attacks, especially on the anniversary.
"It's like ripping off a scab, and it's bringing up all this anxiety and depression and nightmares of what they saw during the months after Shanksville, when they were literally picking body parts out of trees. It's truly heartbreaking," Barasch said.
He said enrollment will give responders access to free medical care for 69 types of cancer and other illnesses, and help heal more wounds from that fateful day.
"It's a free health program. And the best doctors in the world for linking carcinogens from jet fuel and the plastics from the planes that were all being inhaled, those are the doctors at the health program. Those are the doctors that you want to see because they will link your illness, your respiratory illness or any of 69 cancers to that toxic exposure," Barasch said.
"Any of the FBI or the law enforcement that responded to Flight 93 and haven't, it would benefit them and their families to at least have that initial examination," Leonardi said.
Barasch advises people who responded to the 9/11 sites in Shanksville and at the Pentagon to enroll in the World Trade Center Health Program. He said you don't need a lawyer if you want to enroll in the health program, but they can be helpful, especially with all the paperwork.
You have to prove that you were at one of the sites and get certified with a 9/11 illness. He said first responders should also sign up for the victim compensation fund.