N001596
Monday, January 14, 2002 9:41 PM
Injured WTC Victims
Dear Sir and/or Madam,
I apologize for the long story but the background is
necessary.
My mother is a survivor of the World Trade Center
collapse. She worked at in Tower 2.
Her closest co-workers were amongst the
employees who were killed. After she ran and walked
for 7 hours (in heels) to her home, she was under huge
amounts of stress. She suffered panic attacks and
intense headaches. She was unable to see a doctor
until 9/17/01. That doctor not only ran standard
tests on my mother but she took my mother to 's psychiatric emergency room for treatment.
I am a resident of Culver City, California. I am the
only child of a single parent. I flew from Los
Angeles to New York on 9/18/01 to check my mother out
of the psychiatric emergency room. While I did this
voluntarily (to say the least), nobody else could do
it. I was told by the doctors to get her out of NYC
ASAP and start her on long term psych care. That
night, she suffered a headache so severe that she
collapsed in the shower. I managed to get an
appointment with a neurologist at . The
neurologist heard the whole story and prescribed
demerol. He urged me to get my mother psychiatric
treatment ASAP. On Monday, 9/24, I took my mother to
so that she could be
certified to travel with me. She spoke to a social
worker and a psychiatrist, both of whom were happy to
find out that I had set up appointments for my mother
later on that week in Los Angeles. Since the
debilitating headaches were continuing, the doctor
prescribed more medication and ran an MRI. A bright
spot was revealed but the physicians told us she would
be okay to travel. We had to follow up with a doctor
in Los Angeles.
On 9/27/01, my mother's psychiatric treatment started
at . On 9/28/01, my mother saw the
director of 's pain clinic because the
headaches continued.
On 9/30/01, I took my mother to the hospital because
she was throwing up, she was dehydrated, unable to
walk, and unable to see. She was admitted to
for a stay that eventually lasted 19
days. The doctors soon determined that she had
suffered a stroke that affected her visual cortex.
Thankfully (if I can use that word), her sight was the
only sense that was affected. Her visual field is
reduced so that she can see only a person's eyes if
she is looking at that person's face. She can't read.
She can't drive. She can't work on a computer. She
is on the border of being labelled legally blind and,
in fact, she is starting classes at The here in Los Angeles.
She is on Worker's Compensation and has been on it
since 9/12/01. Her employer, her employer's Worker's
Comp insurance company, and her physicians all believe
that her stroke was caused by the stress of her
building collapse.
Because her situation is atypical -- if not unique --
I have had a horrible time trying to get assistance
from the Red Cross. I am getting more help from
(the Worker's Comp insurance
company) than from any other entity. I work for a
startup company that is suffering from the economic
downturn (I know everyone's going through that). In
order to keep my job and care for my mother, filling
out forms and calling institutions that keep me on
hold for hours gets relegated to the wee hours, if
that.
My mother is disabled. This is most likely permanent.
As a result, she may never be able to go back to
work. The lost income puts her apartment (on which
she has a mortgage) in jeopardy. It puts her ability
to pay for her own living expenses in jeopardy.
The DOJ stipulation that an injured person must have
sought medical care within 24 hours of the building
collapse is, quite frankly, unacceptable. My mother
was ignoring her own pain and suffering because of the
deaths of her friends and colleagues. Eliminating
this stipulation is of paramount importance to my
mother and myself.
I don't know whether you have noticed but it is very
difficult to gather information about assistance
and/or support groups for injured survivors. I
understand that the families of those who were killed
are suffering. They should know that my mother
suffers with them. They should know that I suffer
with them. Nevertheless, the survivors should not be
ignored nor should they be discriminated against.
I thank you for your time.
Individual Comment
Culver City, CA