9/11 Victim Compensation Fund deceased claims pass 10,000, with cancer in nearly all approved awards

The number of death claims tied to 9/11-related illness has passed 10,000.

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund's October report lists 10,029 deceased claims filed. At the end of 2015, the figure was 610. That is a 1,544% increase in under eleven years.

What the fund's numbers show

The fund had approved 6,397 deceased awards as of November. Of those, 5,997 involved cancer. The fund says cancer appears in 93% of all deceased award decisions.

The gap between filed claims and approved awards is not a simple count of unpaid families. The 10,029 figure is filings. The fund's data, as reported, does not break down how many of the remaining claims are still under review versus denied.

Michael Barasch, a lawyer who says he represents about half of all 9/11 claimants, says the review process explains much of the lag. It can take more than a year, he said.

Stuck between two systems

Claims for a deceased person must first clear a surrogate's court, which approves filings made on behalf of an estate. That step can also take more than a year, Barasch said.

His firm says it has nearly 2,000 cases "trapped somewhere between the courthouse and the federal claims system."

That means a family can wait through probate, then wait again for the fund. Two processes. Two clocks.

Barasch called the 10,000 figure "amazing and really horrifying and heartbreaking." He also said the true number is "likely thousands more." That is his estimate. The fund's report does not offer such a projection.

Who is eligible

The fund and the health care program were created by the Zadroga Health and Compensation Act in 2010. People exposed to toxic dust and debris may qualify.

Barasch, who worked in the contaminated area and was diagnosed with 9/11-related prostate cancer himself, says the eligible pool reaches well past the pile at Ground Zero. Thousands of emergency workers took part in recovery there, he said. Hundreds of thousands of people lived or kept working nearby after the EPA announced the air in New York City was safe to breathe.

"I speak to people every day, and it's shocking to me how many people still don't realize that they are eligible," he said.

The people behind the count

Christine Sakoutis, 63, was a Manhattan Family Court clerk. She had just come into the city from Staten Island when the first plane hit. She ran toward the towers.

"When the first building fell, there was this big cloud," she said. "It was very black and you couldn't breathe."

She spent the next 10 days helping on the pile and then at a nearby aid center. The court system and her union gave her awards for her heroism the following year.

In 2017, doctors found a spot on her lung. She had the tumor removed and went through chemotherapy. She receives benefits through the program and says she has been almost cancer free since. "I'm exceedingly lucky," she said. "They caught my cancer early so it was curable."

Doug Mandelkow's father was not as fortunate. James Mandelkow, an FDNY fire inspector, worked at a phone bank in lower Manhattan after the attacks. He died of esophageal cancer in 2013, six months after his diagnosis, his son said.

What comes next

The fund's figures show a program whose caseload is still growing a quarter century after the attacks. The deceased-claim count rose from 610 to 10,029 while the fund approved nearly 6,400 awards.

It is not known how many of the remaining deceased claims are still waiting on courts or the fund. Barasch's firm alone counts nearly 2,000 in limbo. Neither the fund nor the surrogate's courts have published a figure for how many families are caught in that gap.