WTC hero wins health coverage

Sickened L.I. man also gets workers' comp


BY ADAM NICHOLS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


Vito Valenti, whose 9/11 service led to severe scarring of his lungs, is among first Ground Zero heroes to win full medical coverage.

Crippled 9/11 hero Vito Valenti's lungs were terminally scarred at Ground Zero, but the injury couldn't stop him from seeing justice finally done this week.
For months, the volunteer who was among the first into the World Trade Center's toxic cloud has been relying on the generosity of strangers for vital medicine and oxygen he couldn't afford.

On Wednesday, he heard a judge order his health costs covered - putting an end to the wearying legal battle.

"I felt the pressure lift right off my chest," he said yesterday. "It was like somebody had lifted 1,000 pounds off me."

Valenti, 42, from Elmont, L.I., inhaled the asbestos and chemical-laden dust at Ground Zero as he answered a call for help in the two days after 9/11.

A hacking cough he developed eight months later was eventually diagnosed as pulmonary fibrosis - a scarring of the lungs so severe that without a transplant, he could expect to live for only five to six years.

He had to quit his job as a union rep with District Council 37. With it went his health benefits.

Technicalities in the workers' compensation system stopped him - like many suffering because of their bravery that day - from claiming coverage.

The system, designed for everyday workplace injuries, had a two-year deadline for claims to be made. By the time Valenti's illness was evident, that deadline had passed.

He has been forced to rely on donations from medical companies, doctors and members of the public moved to help.

But on Wednesday, a judge ruled changes to the law made by Gov. Pataki in August after the Daily News highlighted Valenti's plight, and that of many like him, made him eligible.

"What the governor did was make it so that people in that situation could have their case reviewed again," said a Workers' Compensation Board source.

"How can they adhere to a deadline if they didn't know they were ill until after it had passed?"

The judge ordered that the Workers' Compensation Board grant Valenti its maximum coverage of $400 a week in living expenses and unlimited medical coverage, backdated to August of last year.

While hundreds of people like Valenti could potentially seek coverage, an exact number was not available yesterday.

"I am delighted," said Valenti. "I have finally got some good news.

"I can see a doctor when I need to. I don't need to worry about where the next lot of drugs are going to come from, and I can finally get the tests to put me on the list for a transplant.

"I know I haven't got long to live. I know it's a race against time, but at least now, I can enter the race."

Valenti's attorney, Victor Pasternak, said, "Vito could be the poster child as the first positive result for this change in the law.

"After 32 years of practice, it still feels great when someone gives you a hug for helping them."

Originally published on December 22, 2006


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