Ground Zero
August 9, 2011
From the outside, retired police officer Glen Klein's home is the stuff of the great American dream. The house is fronted by neatly trimmed grass and a white picket fence, while in the background a wind chime tinkles and a golden Labrador lolls.
But inside, the story is not so quaint. As Klein explains, it is one of physical and psychological damage. While he is prepared to talk about it, his wife Carol is not. She had her fill of journalists after a decision to donate one of her kidneys appeared on the wires.
"People found out about it and started calling here and wanted to do stories," he said. But she was not interested in the attention. Her aim was simply to help her husband's friend and colleague, Joe, who had fallen sick after working at Ground Zero.
Reporting for duty
Klein and his colleague were members of the New York police department's Emergency Service Unit (ESU), and they reached Ground Zero just before the second tower collapsed.
He wasn't supposed to be working on September 11. But when he heard about what was going on, he immediately reported for duty.
"I was listening to the radio and remember hearing police officers screaming 'stay away from the building, there are bodies coming down, people are jumping'," Klein said. "All I could think was 'what is going on, what the hell is going on?'"
Futile search for friends
When he reached the site of the World Trade Center, the police officer found out that 14 of his colleagues had been buried under the rubble. He knew them well, had spent so long working with them that they were like family to him.
Like Klein, the missing men were healthy, in good shape, and trained to rescue people from emergency situations. He thought that would stand them in good stead.
"I figured that if anyone could survive something like that then our guys can."
Klein and his colleagues searched for days to find survivors, but were only able to pull two police officers out of the debris alive. He also found a boot in which there was still a foot, and a pair of trousers which he searched for papers. It took him as long as 10 days to realize it was no longer a rescue mission.
Toxic dust
As a member of the special unit, he had a gas mask with him on the day of the attacks, which 10 years on, he is convinced saved him from a worse fate.
During the ensuing nine months he spent helping to clear the rubble, he was given protective breathing equipment. But he says it was fitted with the wrong filters, which meant he and colleagues were breathing in the fine toxic dust in the atmosphere all around them.
Klein fell sick with gastro-intestinal problems which still plague him today, and he holds the Bush administration wholly responsible.
"We worked down in areas we were told were clean and where it was safe to breathe, but that was far from the truth,” he said. “That was our government lying to us because they wanted to get New York city up and running again because of the stock market and so on and so forth."
Out of energy
In 2003, after 20 years in the police service, Glen Klein retired. The karate enthusiast and long-distance runner was both physically and mentally exhausted. He had become lethargic and had sought psychological care. The diagnosis of post-traumatic shock disorder came as a surprise to him.
"I asked how could it be that I have post-traumatic stress when my whole life I have dealt with death and destruction," Klein said. "And what I was told was that this was personal. Fourteen of my friends were killed. It's like someone coming in and killing your family."
These days life is not as hard as it was for Glen Klein. Although he still suffers from depression and is not as fit as he once was, the number of good days are increasing. He has started jogging and doing karate again.
He says volunteering with the Feal Good organization has helped him. It has put him in contact with people who are worse off than himself - people, for example, who can't meet the medical costs of examinations which their insurers won't pay for.
Memories are never far away
Many 9/11 helpers, or responders as they are known, have developed health problems. More than 1,000 are known to have died from the work they did at Ground Zero. But Glen Klein says the number could actually be a lot higher.
"There are probably hundreds throughout the country from other police departments and fire departments who came here to help us, who were sick or may already have died."
Checking up is difficult because there is no kind of federal contact between departments.
The former police officer is constantly reminded of the vulnerability of his own health, especially with the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks fast approaching. There is, he said, no way to ever forget what happened.
"You would have to live in a shell, to put yourself in a cocoon, never watch TV, never read a newspaper, never talk to anybody," Klein said. "That's the only way you'd be able to do it, and I don't even think that's possible, it would still be on your mind."
One good thing is that his friend and colleague Joe has been given a new lease of life thanks to his wife Carol's kidney donation.
"Now Joe's living a normal life. He's able to take his kids to Disneyland or on vacation and doesn't need dialysis."
Author: Christina Bergmann / tkw
Editor: Sabina Casagrande