9/11 worker pleads for help with billboards
This June 23 photo shows a billboard rented by Mike Megna, that includes Megna’s name and picture as well as a plea asking for kidney disease to be added to the list of covered conditions by a fund to help Ground Zero workers with health problems.
In this June 23 photo, Michael Megna, a former Pompton Lakes police officer who helped out at Ground Zero for the first three weeks after the attack doing volunteer rescue work, poses in West Milford, N.J.
WEST MILFORD, N.J. – A New Jersey man who spent three weeks looking for survivors in the days after the 9/11 attacks is using billboards in a push to have his kidney disease added to the list of covered conditions by a fund to help Ground Zero workers with health problems.
Mike Megna has a rare kidney disease he believes was caused by dust from the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center towers.
The 44-year-old West Milford resident rented two billboards in New Jersey near New York City that plead, “Add Kidney Disease for 9/11 Rescue Workers!” The signs include Megna’s name and picture.
A spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which administers the fund, said there’s not enough evidence yet to connect the condition to Ground Zero.