Joseph C. Zadroga, whose lobbying helped provide health benefits to thousands of emergency workers whose health had deteriorated from inhaling dust and debris to ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center — though the his efforts were too late for his son. a New York detective — died Saturday after being hit by a car in Pomona, N.J. He was 76.
His death was confirmed by his son Joseph F. Zadroga.
Early Saturday afternoon, the elder Mr. Zadroga was visiting his wife at the Bacharach Rehabilitation Institute. According to Galloway Township police, he was standing outside his parked car when he was hit by an SUV that apparently accidentally accelerated and pinned him under it. He was pronounced dead at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.
A retired police chief in North Arlington, NJ, Mr. Zadroga was instrumental in the passage by Congress in 2010 of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides federal medical benefits, including monitoring and of treatment, to police and firefighters and emergency medical personnel who became ill as a result of their exposure to pollutants in the aftermath of the 2001 disaster in Lower Manhattan. Mr. Zadroga and others successfully pushed Congress to reauthorize the legislation in 2015.
The death of his son James was the first death of a public servant officially linked by autopsy to the time an emergency worker spent at ground zero.
James Zadroga died in 2006, aged 34, after spending around 500 hours in restoration efforts on 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 debris. He eventually 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 she died bringing her a bottle and was raised by his parents, his brother and his sister-in-law.
“I just want everybody out there, the victims that got sick, to get the health care that they deserve, because Jimmy didn’t get it,” Joseph Zadroga said at a rally in 2014.
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, New York’s largest police union, said in a statement: “Joseph Zadroga has opened a battle that no father should have to face. But he fought for his hero son with incredible courage and helped every 9/11 responder in the process.”
After his son’s death, Mr. Zadroga was invited by Representative Carolyn Maloney, D-Manhattan, to testify before Congress and helped run a national campaign for health care legislation backed by the comedian and talk show host. Jon Stewart and other celebrities.
In his testimony, Ms Zadroga quoted from a letter written by his son: “Everyone praises the dead as heroes, as they should, but there are more living suffering than dead.”
The Ocean County Medical Examiner had initially determined 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 his lungs came from prescription drug abuse. (His family said that if he had been on pain medication, it was because he was finding it increasingly painful to breathe.) A third opinion, by Dr. Michael Baden, who was the city’s chief medical examiner in the late 1970s, supported the coroner’s original finding.
The conflicting opinions confused Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who endorsed Dr. Hirsch and said: “We wanted to have a hero, and there are many heroes. It’s just that in this case, science says he wasn’t a hero.” The mayor later apologized, saying, “I think James Zadroga was a hero for 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, ran the household.
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, NJ, 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 his 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. Tattooed on his forearm was a cross, his son’s name and the words “Not Forgotten”.
“Joe turned his son’s tragedy into something that really helped so many people,” said Michael Barras, James Zandroga’s attorney. northjersey.comadding 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.”