2750

It made big news here in New York this week that a lady named Felicia Dunn-Jones, who had worked just a block from the World Trade Center, was officially declared the 2,750th victim of the 9/11 disaster. On that terrible morning, she was covered with dust and ash as she was escaping the area. Ms. Dunn-Jones was a healthy woman before the attacks, and five months after it, she died of sarcoidosis (which is an inflammation of the tissue in the lungs).

It took nearly five years for the Chief Medical Examiner to change his thinking that Ms. Dunn-Jones, who was 42 and married with two children, died as a result of her exposure to the toxins in the air. But now her death is now officially a homicide and not of natural causes.

She will now join the list of those who were killed as a result of the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11. The disease that killed Ms. Dunn-Jones has also affected many of those first responders who risked their lives down at Ground Zero for those many months of the dangerous cleanup efforts.

It is good to see that Felicia Dunn-Jones is now recognized as a victim of 9/11. But she certainly won't be the last person who will have died directly or indirectly due to the 9/11 attacks.

I fear that the number 2750 will continue to rise as the years go on. And there's no telling just how high it will eventually rise to.

The stories of the ill first responders will continue to make news for years to come. The 9/11 disaster simply will never end.