A New Jersey man has overcome an extremely rare form of cancer that he developed after being exposed to toxins after the September 11 attacks.
Gerard Vanderberg was a 47-year-old bond trader in good shape in 2001, working in a building directly across from the Twin Towers at the time of the terrorist attacks.
While he escaped the devastating act of terror that day, he began experiencing health problems eight years later.
The New Jersey native first noticed pain in his side and knees in 2009, which he initially attributed to his basketball playing.
Gerard Vanderberg (right) with his daughter Caitlin (far left) and his wife Silvana during a fundraising gala in April this year
Mr. Vanderberg in recovery after his first stem cell transplant at Hackensack Meridian in New Jersey
He said: ‘I was in great shape at the time – very athletic, never got sick – but suddenly things happened in my body.’
He then developed a plasmacytoma – a tumor of plasma cells – outside his right lung, protruding through the skin.
His doctor ordered blood tests, which led to a diagnosis in August 2010 of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.
Mr Vanderberg told Fox News: ‘I immediately decided, ‘I’m going to fight this as much as I can.’
“I could have given up, but that’s just not who I am.”
Mr. Vanderberg is one of thousands of people diagnosed with a 9/11-related illness, linked to the toxins that lingered in the air near Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks.
Many of these diseases have been linked to asbestos.
Mr. Vanderberg remembers the large amount of “white dust” covering every surface when he returned to his office to gather his belongings a few days after the attack.
“It wasn’t until later that I realized it was asbestos,” he said.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral used in building materials. It was used in the World Trade Center to insulate and support the steel beams in the tower.
When the towers collapsed, they did a large cloud of dust was released that contained asbestos, which is classified as carcinogenicin the air.
Mr. Vanderberg’s oncologist, Dr. David Siegel of Hackensack Meridian, put him through many chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell treatments.
Dr. Siegel said multiple myeloma is the cancer that saw the biggest increase after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In the years after the attacks, he began to see a rise in cancer cases in the area, especially in patients younger than the average age of myeloma diagnosis, which is 70.
He said: ‘There has been a significant increase in the risk of myeloma among people who worked at the World Trade Center, as well as among first responders and construction workers who returned to the area after the attack.’
Dr. Siegel said he believes people at the World Trade Center may have inhaled toxic carcinogens, which then entered their immune systems.
Chronic stimulation of the immune system increases the risk of developing blood cancers, especially multiple myeloma and lymphomas. They develop slowly, meaning survivors can receive a diagnosis decades later.
Mr Vanderberg is now in remission from his myeloma, but he said: ‘September 11 will always be a sad day in my life, a very emotional day.
‘At first I felt a bit guilty. I didn’t immediately submit an application to the Victims Compensation Fund because I had the feeling: well, I’m alive and they’re dead.’
The Victims Compensation Fund provides compensation to people, or family members of a deceased person, who were present at the World Trade Center or the surrounding New York City Exposure Zone following the September 11 terrorist attacks and who have since been diagnosed with September 11th. -related illness.
The VCF is not limited to first responders. Compensation is also available to those who worked or volunteered in construction, cleanup and debris removal, as well as to people who lived, worked or attended school in the exposure zone.