GREAT KILLS — Firefighter Robert Serra was 21 years old and a day out of the academy on Sept. 11, 2001, when he dropped going to an FDNY hockey team tryout and rushed to Ground Zero to help.
He donated a pint of blood as soon as he got to Lower Manhattan and worked to help rescue people from the tragedy, returning to the site many times in the aftermath.
Now retired for three years, he's suffering from numerous health issues — including having dozens of polyps removed from his nose and sinuses, thyroid nodules and PTSD — and is in danger of losing his benefits granted by the Zadroga Act, which is set to run out of funding in 2016.
"These illnesses are permanent, they're not going anywhere they're only going to get worse," Serra said. "Even a five year extension, you're only seeing the beginning of when all the real diseases are going to start.
"If this doesn't get extended permanently and seven years down the road I get cancer, what's going to happen [to my family]?" he added.
Rep. Dan Donovan joined Serra in his home, with other retired first responders and State Sen. Andrew Lanza, to push Congress to make the Zadroga Act — which covers compensation and health care for 9/11 victims and first responders — permanent.
"It would be a national disgrace if one hero passes away for lack of medical treatment, or one hero’s children can’t pay for college because the family went broke from medical costs," Donovan said.
"Time doesn’t erase our moral imperative to cover the medical expenses of sick first responders and volunteers — it is an extension of the costs of the attack."
The act helps pay for health care for problems people got being exposed to the debris in 9/11, and was renewed for five years twice until it ran out on Sept. 13.
Donovan has co-sponsored a bill that would make the law permanent, which gained support from forrmer "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.
Staten Island has the most amount of first responders who gain health care from the bill, Donovan said, but people from nearly every district in the country use it.
While some argued that 14 years later the bill is unnecessary, Donovan and Serra said that many of the health issues from exposure in Ground Zero don't crop up until nearly 20 years and new diseases get linked to being a first responder.
Retired firefighter Howard Scott, who was in Lower Manhattan before the buildings came down, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2001 and had to pay high co-pays for expensive treatments until his type of cancer was linked to 9/11 and the Zadroga Act kicked in.
Now he's five years cancer free, but worries if the bill doesn't get put back in, he'll have to once again pay for check ups and tests to make sure he's still healthy.
"The scans and other future tests still are out there and how that's going to be taken of, funded and pay for, is a concern," he said. "It's just not stopping."
