MANHASSET (WABC) — Thursday will mark 24 years since the September 11 terror attacks.
Years later, first responders continue to face their own health battles, including William Giammarino, who spent nearly five months at ground zero.
His selfless work eventually led to a diagnosis of COPD and, recently, a double lung transplant.
He had the chance to thank the team that helped save his life on Tuesday.
“It was terrible. Not breathing is hard. It’s very hard to do,” Giammarino said.
The former NYPD emergency unit officer survived 9/11.
“There were about 14 guys I worked with died that day and that’s who you were thinking about. You weren’t thinking about yourself,” Giammarino said.
The Holbrook husband and father of two was 38 years old when he was dispatched at ground zero at the site of the World Trade Center.
Every day for 5 months, the 19-year police veteran helped with aid and recovery, including working the pile, exposing himself to over 150 toxins.
“I started with high blood pressure, diabetes, I don’t know if all of that is connected with it. I started with the breathing and inhalers and stuff like that and it just progressed over the years,” Giammarino said.
Doctors diagnosed him with COPD, which is considered a 9/11 related respiratory illness.
He says he put it off until three years ago when he was hospitalized.
“Oh it was horrible. I wouldn’t be able to put my shoes on. I wouldn’t be able to take a shower. I would take the oxygen into the shower with me and you would shower and I would be out of breath. I would have to stop,” he said.
His wife, Debra Cilenti, was with him every step of the way.
“I watched him not be able to breathe. It was very hard, very hard to watch,” she said.
Giammarino was at the point where he needed a double-lung transplant, which he got one year ago this week.
He was treated at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, which is the only lung transplant program on Long Island.
He was also one of the 111 people who qualify under the free care of the World Trade Center Health Program, which currently has nearly 135,000 patients.
“As of last week, 55,406 World Trade Center health program members have been certified for at least one respiratory condition,” Dr. Jaqueline Moline, Director, Northwell’s World Trade Center Health Program, said.
With his new set of lungs, Giammarino dodged cancer and is on the mend.
“Over 50,000 cancers have been linked to exposures to ground zero an increase of 143 percent over the past five years.”
Giammarino hasn’t been in the hospital since the surgery and now walks 2-3 miles 6 days a week.
“They gave him his life back. He wouldn’t have been here today,” Cilenti said.
His only wish is for more people to receive the same lifesaving treatment that he did.
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