Joseph C. Zadroga, whose lobbying helped provide health benefits to thousands of emergency workers whose health was affected by inhaling dust and debris at ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, although his efforts reached too late for his own son. A New York City detective died Saturday after being hit by a car in Pomona, New Jersey. He was 76 years old.
His death was confirmed by his son Joseph F. Zadroga.
Early Saturday afternoon, Mr. Zadroga Sr. was visiting his wife at the Bacharach Rehabilitation Institute. According to Galloway Township police, he was standing outside the parked car when he was hit by a pickup truck that apparently accelerated accidentally and pinned him under it. He was pronounced dead at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.
Zadroga, a retired police chief of North Arlington, New Jersey, was instrumental in Congress' passage in 2010 of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides federal medical benefits, including monitoring and treatment, to police officers and firefighters. and emergency medical workers who fell ill as a result of their exposure to pollutants after the 2001 devastation in Lower Manhattan. Zadroga and others successfully pressured Congress to reauthorize the legislation in 2015.
His son James' death was the first death of a public employee that an autopsy officially linked to an emergency worker's time at ground zero.
James Zadroga died in 2006, aged 34, after spending some 500 hours dedicated to recovery efforts in what became known as the Pile. By the following May, after sifting through the rubble for human remains, workers had removed 1.8 million tons of tangled remains. He finally qualified for disability pension benefits.
His death came a year after his wife, Rhonda, died of a heart attack, leaving him to raise their 4-year-old daughter, Tyler Ann. She was orphaned when he died carrying her a bottle, and she was raised by her parents, her brother, and her sister-in-law.
“I just want everyone out there, the victims who got sick, to have the medical care they deserve, because Jimmy didn't get it,” Joseph Zadroga said at a rally in 2014.
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, New York City's largest police officers union, said in a statement: “Joseph Zadroga took on a fight that no parent should have to face. But he fought for his hero son with incredible courage and helped all those who responded to 9/11 in the process.”
After his son's death, Mr. Zadroga was invited by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, to testify before Congress, and he helped mount a national campaign for health care legislation that was supported by comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart and other celebrities.
In her testimony, Mrs. Zadroga cited a letter written by her son: “Everyone praises the dead as heroes, as they should, but there are more living people suffering than dead people.”
The Ocean County Coroner had originally found that James Zadroga died of “respiratory failure” resulting from a “history of exposure to toxic fumes and dusts.”
But about a year and a half later, New York City's chief medical examiner, Charles S. Hirsch, concluded that the particles in her lungs were due to prescription drug abuse. (His family said he had taken painkillers because it was becoming more painful to breathe.) A third opinion, from Dr. Michael Baden, who had been the city's chief medical examiner in the late 1970s, supported the opinion. original from the coroner. finding.
The conflicting opinions entangled Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who backed Dr. Hirsch's conclusion, saying, “We wanted to have a hero, and there are many heroes. It's just that in this case science says he was not a hero.” The mayor later apologized and said, “I think James Zadroga was a hero because of the way he lived, regardless of the way he died.”
James Zadroga is not listed on the 9/11 memorial.
Joseph Charles Zadroga was born on April 2, 1947 in Newark. His father, Charles, worked for RCA. His mother, Ann (Czyc) Zadroga, took care of the house.
After graduating from North Arlington High School, Joseph earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from William Paterson College (now William Paterson University) in Wayne, New Jersey, and a master's degree in emergency management from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He served in the Army in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968.
In addition to his wife, Linda (Baczewski) Zadroga, and their son, Mr. Zadroga is survived by his sister, Paula Bates, and two grandchildren.
Joseph Zadroga worked for the North Arlington Police Department from 1970 until 1997, when he retired as chief. He later taught at the Bergen County Police Academy. A crucifix, the name of his son and the words “Not forgotten” were tattooed on his forearm.
“Joe turned his son's tragedy into something that really helped a lot of people,” Michael Barasch, James Zadroga's attorney, told northjersey.com, adding that James “did not die in vain, because of the autopsy his parents ordered.” .
“Without that,” he said, “we would never have had the evidence to get Congress to act.”
