Joseph C. Zadroga, whose lobbying helped ship well being advantages to hundreds of emergency staff whose well being was impaired by inhaling mud and particles at floor zero after the 2001 terrorist assault on the World Commerce Heart — though his efforts got here too late for his personal son, a New York Metropolis detective — died on Saturday after being hit by a automobile in Pomona, N.J. He was 76.
His dying was confirmed by his son Joseph F. Zadroga.
Early Saturday afternoon, the elder Mr. Zadroga was visiting his spouse on the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation. In line with the Galloway Township police, he was standing outdoors his parked automobile when he was struck by an SUV that apparently accelerated unintentionally and pinned him below it. He was pronounced lifeless at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Heart.
A retired North Arlington, N.J., police chief, Mr. Zadroga was instrumental within the passage by Congress in 2010 of the James Zadroga 9/11 Well being and Compensation Act, which offers federal medical advantages, together with monitoring and remedy, to cops, firefighters and emergency medical staff who grew to become unwell because of their publicity to the contaminants within the aftermath of the 2001 devastation in Decrease Manhattan. Mr. Zadroga and others efficiently pushed Congress to reauthorize the laws in 2015.
The dying of his son James was the primary dying of a public worker that was formally linked by an post-mortem to time spent by an emergency employee at floor zero.
James Zadroga died in 2006, at 34, after spending some 500 hours engaged in restoration efforts at what grew to become often called the Pile. By the next Might, after sifting the rubble for human stays, staff had eliminated 1.8 million tons of tangled wreckage. He finally certified for incapacity pension advantages.
His dying got here a yr after his spouse, Rhonda, died of a coronary heart assault, which left him to boost their 4-year-old daughter, Tyler Ann. She was orphaned when he died bringing her a child bottle, and she or he was introduced up by his dad and mom, his brother and his sister-in-law.
“I simply need everyone on the market, the victims who acquired sick, to have the well being care that they deserve, as a result of Jimmy didn’t get it,” Joseph Zadroga mentioned at a rally in 2014.
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Affiliation, New York Metropolis’s largest cops’ union, mentioned in a press release: “Joseph Zadroga took on a combat that no father ought to should face. However he fought for his hero son with unimaginable braveness and helped each single 9/11 responder within the course of.”
After his son died, Mr. Zadroga was invited by Consultant Carolyn Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, to testify earlier than Congress, and he helped mount a nationwide marketing campaign for the well being care laws that was supported by the comic and speak present host Jon Stewart and different celebrities.
In his testimony, Ms. Zadroga quoted from a letter written by his son: “Everybody praises the lifeless as heroes, as they need to, however there are extra dwelling struggling than lifeless.”
The Ocean County coroner had initially discovered that James Zadroga died of “respiratory failure” ensuing from a “historical past of publicity to poisonous fumes and dusts.”
However a few yr and a half later, New York Metropolis’s chief medical expert, Charles S. Hirsch, concluded that the particles in his lungs have been from the abuse of prescribed drugs. (His household mentioned that if he had taken painkillers, it was as a result of he discovered it more and more painful to breathe.) A 3rd opinion, by Dr. Michael Baden, who had been town’s chief medical expert within the late Seventies, supported the coroner’s authentic discovering.
The conflicting opinions entangled Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who endorsed Dr. Hirsch’s conclusion and mentioned: “We wished to have a hero, and there are many heroes. It’s simply on this case, science says this was not a hero.” The mayor later apologized, saying, “I consider that James Zadroga was a hero for the best way he lived, whatever the means that he died.”
James Zadroga will not be listed on the 9/11 memorial.
Joseph Charles Zadroga was born on April 2, 1947, in Newark. His father, Charles, labored for RCA. His mom, Ann (Czyc) Zadroga, ran the family.
After graduating from North Arlington Excessive Faculty, Joseph earned a bachelor’s diploma in felony justice from William Paterson School (now William Paterson College) in Wayne, N.J., and a grasp’s in emergency administration from Fairleigh Dickinson College. He served within the Military in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968.
Along with his spouse, Linda (Baczewski) Zadroga, and his son, Mr. Zadroga is survived by his sister, Paula Bates, and two grandchildren.
Joseph Zadroga labored for the North Arlington Police Division from 1970 till 1997, when he retired as chief. He later taught on the Bergen County Police Academy. Tattooed on his forearm have been a crucifix, his son’s identify and the phrases “Not Forgotten.”
“Joe turned his son’s tragedy into one thing that basically helped so many individuals,” Michael Barasch, who was James Zadroga’s lawyer, advised northjersey.com, including that James “didn’t die in useless, due to the post-mortem his dad and mom ordered.”
“With out that,” he mentioned, “we might have by no means had the proof to get Congress to behave.”
