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Officer deals with illness after 9/11

By Michael Clancy | amNewYork City Editor

September 6, 2006

NYPD officer Steven Mayfield worked more than 400 hours at Ground Zero, and says his lungs are permanently scarred as a result. (amNewYork Photo/ Lane Johnson)

Walking the beat in Washington Heights in March 2003, Officer Steven Mayfield felt light-headed. For several months, he had experienced weight loss, shortness of breath and dry mouth among other symptoms.

Now, the 6-foot 3-inch fitness buff felt like he was going to black out. He made it back to the 34th Precinct and was taken to a hospital. Doctors ruled out diabetes, hepatitis and cancer but it took a while to come to a diagnosis.

In the end, the 45-year-old Harlem native learned he had pulmonary sarcoidosis -- a scarring of the lungs and inflammation of vital organs -- as well as sleep apnea and chronic sinusitis.

"Bottom line is that my lungs are damaged," said Mayfield, a 16-year veteran of the force, who spent 400 hours at Ground Zero. It was time logged as fires smoldered at the pit. Months later, after the fires were extinguished, he still manned details near the World Trade Center site. "We were exposed to a lot of toxins -- asbestos, charred glass, toxins -- We didn't have the proper equipment and breathing apparatus. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see there was a correlation."

Sarcoidosis is a medical mystery. Doctors don't know what causes it, though it is believed that exposure to toxic chemicals is one of the triggers of the disease. "I'm worried about my future," Mayfield said, who added that recent CAT-scans had shown spots on his lungs. "Is it going to get better or is going to get worse?"

That is the question on the minds of many of the 40,000 cops, firefighters and volunteers who responded on 9/11 and the days following the attack, digging through tons of rubble while under a cloud of smoke.

Since 2001, 600 firefighters have retired because of health problems they say are linked to being at Ground Zero.

Police officers, too, are trying to quantify the affects of 9/11 on their ranks. Frustrated by what they say is a lack of public information about 9/11-related illness, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA) earlier this summer started its own health registry for its member.

So far this year, two first died of diseases that their families and doctors say are 9/11-related. NYPD Det. James Zadroga died of heart and lung complications. Emergency medical technician Debbie Reeve succumbed to mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by asbestos.

"If the system doesn't change fast, what is going to happen next is that the toll from Sept. 11 will rise," said PBA president Patrick Lynch. "There are men and women who are dying from the illness now and who are going to die in the future."

Mayfield, who has registered his health problems with the PBA, spends his time going to doctors' appointment, figuring out a special breathing apparatus to sleep at night, and worrying about the long-term effects of prednisone, a steroid used to treat sarcoidosis.

"We did the right thing. Our city and nation called and we answered," Mayfield said. "Now they are asking us to prove there is a correlation. I'm not a scientist. I'm not a doctor. But I don't think you have to be either to put together what happened."