# Six NYC 9/11 Officers Stricken With Brain Cancer



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*CARL CAMPANILE and SUSAN EDELMAN *
_New York Post_

An alarming number of 9/11 responders have been stricken with brain cancer - including six NYPD cops, The Post has learned.

At least 11 of the Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers and their families claim in a class-action lawsuit - which includes dozens of other cancer victims - that toxic air and dust caused or triggered the rare, often fatal, brain illness.

Three brain-cancer victims have died, raising the total death toll in a 7,300-plaintiff lawsuit brought by workers and their families to 41, said lead attorney David Worby.

They include Stephen "Rak" Yurek, 46, a Port Authority emergency technician from Bayonne, N.J., who died Dec. 11 after a 16-month illness. He left behind a wife and four children ages 10 to 25.

His widow, Mary Ellen, said he was healthy before his 2004 diagnosis.

"He was never sick a day in his life," she told The Post.


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