NEW YORK — The lung disease that killed a police detective who toiled for weeks at ground zero was caused by injecting ground-up pills, not by toxic dust from rubble of the World Trade Center, the city medical examiner’s office confirmed Thursday.
Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch’s ruling outraged the family of 34-year-old James Zadroga, who became a national symbol of post-Sept. 11 illness after his death last year.
The family released more than 100 pages of medical records that showed Zadroga developed breathing problems just after the 2001 attacks. Zadroga’s father said the medicine his son was taking to treat his illness – including several strong painkillers and anti-anxiety pills – were never improperly injected.
“The cause of his death was dust inhaled at ground zero,” said Dr. Michael Baden, a pathologist who reviewed Zadroga’s case for the family.
Zadroga’s family went to the New York City medical examiner to get the officer added to the official Sept. 11 victims’ list. Hirsch concluded that Zadroga was taking pills that were ground up and injected into his bloodstream, leaving traces of the pills in his lung tissue, Hirsch spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
But Baden said that if Zadroga had been grinding up pills and injecting them, his autopsy report would have noted scars and needle tracks on his arms.
James Zadroga became the face of post-Sept. 11 illness following his death, with bills named after him in Congress to fund research and treatment for sick ground zero workers.
So far, Hirsch has changed the death certificate of only one person – Felicia Dunn-Jones, a woman who died five months after the attacks – saying that exposure to the toxic dust cloud caused or worsened her lung disease.
