February 6, 2008

9/11 VICTIM – EMS Lt. Brian Ellicott, a member of Local 3621 (DC 37) died of cancer likely caused by his exposure to toxic air at Ground Zero.

New York EMS Lt. Brian Ellicott, a member of Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians Local 3621 (DC 37), was just 45 years old when he passed away last November. The cause: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a cancer of the immune system that may be linked to his work at Ground Zero.

Many first responders to the Sept. 11 disaster continue to fall victim to such illnesses. Ellicott is the first of his local to die from such a disease, but three members of Local 2507 (DC 37) also have died from the apparent effects of their work at the World Trade Center site:

• EMT Felix Hernandez Jr., 31, who worked at Station 17 in the Bronx, died Oct. 23, 2006.
• EMT Timothy Keller, 41, passed away June 23, 2005, from a heart attack brought on by respiratory illness.
• Paramedic Deborah Reeve, 41, who worked at Station 20 at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, passed away March 15, 2006. She was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a type of cancer – in her lungs.

Read more about Ellicott in this story from DC 37’s Public Employee Press. Also, check out Seth Michaels’s blog post at the AFL-CIO, and this story at MSNBC.