Six Philanthropies Join The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund to Provide Medical Treatment for 9/11 Workers

Business Wire, Feb 26, 2007

NEW YORK -- Six philanthropies today joined The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund to create a 9/11 Neediest Medical campaign. Contributions to the campaign, which begins with more than $4 million, will provide treatment for uninsured workers and residents who have developed life-threatening diseases since the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

This special campaign is being launched by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund with a $1 million grant from its endowment to a clinical consortium headed by the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The funds will be used to treat uninsured responders who performed Sept. 11 rescue, recovery and cleanup work. The New York Community Trust, in a parallel effort, plans to contribute $1 million for screening and treatment to Beyond Ground Zero and Bellevue Hospital Center, principally for uninsured clean-up workers and lower Manhattan residents.

The Ford Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Institute have each contributed $1 million to support the Sept. 11 work at the two hospitals. Both hospitals will also benefit from gifts of $250,000 from the Altman Foundation, $75,000 from the United Way of New York City and $25,000 from Trinity Church Wall Street, which will also accept contributions from the public at its St. Paul's Chapel near Ground Zero.

"We know that this campaign can meet only a fraction of the need," said Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation. "Mayor Bloomberg estimates the cost at nearly $400 million a year for years - something that will require concerted city, state and federal action. But in the interim, we hope this campaign can, starting immediately, help save lives and allay suffering. We invite the public and other philanthropies to join with us."

"As a New Yorker, I wanted to support the people who risked their well-being to help others in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th attacks," said George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute. "As a result of their heroic efforts, many of them today are in poor health and are especially vulnerable because they lack medical insurance. Now it is important to come to their aid."

The Mount Sinai consortium includes four other New York area hospitals. It has screened 20,000 World Trade Center workers since 2002 and found that some 60 percent suffer from respiratory ailments. Others have developed leukemia, other cancers and auto-immune diseases which, though not conclusively linked to exposure to the Trade Center dust, are of concern to doctors. The Bellevue program draws on the outreach work of the Beyond Ground Zero network, a coalition of community organizations in lower New York.

"This generosity will give a tremendous boost to our efforts to meet the medical needs of our patients in the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment program," said Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, president, Mount Sinai. "In fact, the new infusion of funds will help bridge the gap in medical services by providing coverage for conditions not currently taken care of in the existing program."

The federal government has provided funds to screen for disease among Sept. 11 workers since 2002 and last November made $26 million available for treatment of some but not all diseases. The 9/11 Neediest Medical campaign proceeds will be available to doctors to support patients with life-threatening diseases that are not now eligible.

In a report last week, Mayor Bloomberg's World Trade Center Health Panel estimated that the cost of screening and treatment for all those affected by Sept. 11 could exceed $392 million a year, not including late-emerging conditions or pension and disability costs.

"These workers are among the neediest people we know," said Jack Rosenthal, president of the Neediest Cases Fund. "They did not happen to be downtown on Sept. 11. They chose to go there, to help or to work. Most had no respirators. When they took their boots off at night, the toxic dust had eaten through their socks. We urgently hope the government comes to their rescue - but at best that would be many months away."

Contributions may be made to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. All gifts to the Fund received by April 1 will go to the new 9/11 Neediest Medical campaign. Donors may earmark their gifts for the Mount Sinai or Bellevue programs or both. Unspecified contributions will be divided equally between the two hospitals.

Checks should be payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and sent to 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245.

Donations may be made with a credit card by phone at (800) 381-0075 or online, courtesy of NYCharities.org, an Internet donations service, at http://www.nycharities.org/neediest or http://www.nytimes.com/neediest. Contributions to the fund are deductible on federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law.

To delay may mean to forget.

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