First responders still dying from 9/11 related illnesses

NEW YORK (Gray DC) - On September 11, 2001, more than 400 first responders ran into the Twin Towers to save others and never came out. In the 25 years since, ten times that many have died from 9/11-related illness.

EMT Danny Casey is one of them.

Nicole Casey met her husband Danny at a bar, she said.

“I was at a bar with a girlfriend, and they were friendly, and we just got to chatting. And a week later, I was a guest of his at a wedding. And that was it. We were inseparable,” Nicole Casey said.

Meeting, marrying and building a life

Nicole and Danny Casey married and built a life together on Long Island.

“So we had Daniel, December of 2008. And then, three years later, we had Liam,” Nicole Casey said.

Years earlier, Danny had responded on 9/11 to Ground Zero as an EMT. Nicole said he rarely talked about it, but later told her he spent time sifting through the rubble, searching for remains.

“I was grateful that he was in it in the capacity that he was, and not that our story never happened. He was an EMT at the time. But if he was in a firehouse at the time, I always said to him, I said, there’s no doubt in my mind that we would have never been together, because you would have been running into the building to save some people, because that’s just who he was,” Nicole Casey said.

The summer of 2021

Nicole said Danny was funny, loving and strong. Then came the summer of 2021.

“We were on the couch and we were getting ready to watch a movie. The four of us. So, he was kind of breathing funny behind me. And I turn around, I go, you alright? And he goes, no, I don’t, I don’t feel right,” Nicole Casey said.

Then came a series of seizures, infusions and hospital stays.

“They started to treat him for autoimmune encephalitis,” Nicole Casey said.

Thousands of first responders affected

Danny joined the thousands of first responders who found themselves suffering years later. The National Institutes of Health says people exposed to the toxic dust cloud faced double the risk of developing a systemic autoimmune disease.

“So he would always have to go to the hospital. So it sucked. It sucked for us, and it sucked for him, you know, because as being a big, strong man that just wanted to take care of and protect his family, he felt helpless. So...” Nicole Casey said. Recalling these memories of her husband made Nicole cry.

Doctors offered few concrete answers. Nicole and the couple’s sons checked in constantly on Danny while at work and school.

“So, finishing my appointment, you know, there was something tapping on my shoulder that was like, just go home. Go home, Nic. Because if I didn’t go home, Daniel and Liam would have arrived home before me. I came home and I came downstairs and I knew that he was already...I knew it, you know what I mean? I knew it,” Nicole Casey said.

Danny Casey died in September 2025. He was 48.

Fighting for health care coverage

“Every single day we lose a responder, we’re literally a responder a day,” said Michael O’Connell, a retired FDNY firefighter.

O’Connell, a former FDNY lieutenant, fights for health care for September 11 first responders on Capitol Hill.

Every year, he rings a bell for the roughly 300 names added to the 9/11 Responders Remembered Park in Long Island, representing 300 more lives lost. This year hits differently for O’Connell.

“Danny was a lifelong friend. Danny was in my wedding party. He was as close as one of my blood brothers. And we did everything together. It hits home when it’s that close, right?” O’Connell said.

Missed milestones

Twenty-five years later, the death toll keeps climbing, and families keep missing the milestones that matter most.

“The little things that Liam’s playing football now, you know, like he’s not experiencing that. He would have loved to see it. You know, Daniel got his braces off. Daniel was going to be senior. He just passed his road test. I just miss him like, his big, strong hugs,” Nicole Casey said.

Danny is still with her every day, Nicole said.

“It’s a heart that Danny gave me. And these are his ashes. And these are the boy’s initials,” Nicole Casey said.

Research from the National Institutes of Health shows a connection between the toxic dust at Ground Zero and autoimmune diseases, but those diseases are not currently covered by the World Trade Center Health Program. That program offers care to anyone in the disaster area on 9/11 or the days that followed, covering cancer, respiratory conditions, digestive disorders and mental health conditions. Five petitions are under review to add autoimmune diseases to the list of covered 9/11-related illnesses.