Man Beats Rare Cancer After Toxic Exposure on 9/11: I Could’ve ‘Given Up, but That’s Just Not Who I Am’
Gerard Vanderberg was working directly across the street from the Twin Towers at the time of the terrorist attacks
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Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked airliners in a terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in New York City.Twenty-two years after the deadly terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, a New Jersey man diagnosed with a rare form of cancer he developed after the tragedy is now in remission.
Nine years after being exposed to toxins on 9/11, Gerard Vanderberg was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood plasma cells.
At the time that the hijacked airplanes crashed, Vanderberg was a 47-year-old relatively healthy bond trader. His office was directly across the street from the Twin Towers.
When he returned to his place of work a few days later to gather belongings that had been left behind, he recalled that "white dust" covered much of his office space.
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The streets of downtown New York are covered in debris after both World Trade Towers collapsed from a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in New York City."The white stuff was all over the place — in my computer, on my desk, in my books," Vanderberg told Fox News in an interview. "It wasn’t until later that I realized it was asbestos."
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Dust swirls around south Manhattan moments after a tower of the World Trade Center collapsed September 11, 2001 in New York City after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in an alleged terrorist attack.In the years that followed, Vanderberg was simply happy to be alive and unaware that the white dust he was exposed to during the terrorist attack would fester into a much larger issue.
"I was in great shape at the time — very athletic, never got sick — but suddenly there were some things going on in my body," he said.
In 2009, Vanderberg developed pains in his knee and sides. He thought the discomfort was due to playing basketball. Not long after, he discovered he had a plasmacytoma, a tumor of plasma cells, just outside of his right lung.
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In August 2010, his physician ran bloodwork, discovering that Vanderberg also had multiple myeloma. He decided then that he would “fight this as much as I can,” he told Fox News.
According to Dr. David Siegel, the oncologist who treated Vanderberg following his diagnosis, multiple myeloma is the most commonly seen complication that people exposed to Ground Zero have developed since 9/11.
Related: At Least 15 Men Who Spent Time Near Site of 9/11 Attacks Have Been Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
"There has been a significant increase in the risk of myeloma among people who worked in the World Trade Center, as well as first responders and construction workers who returned to the area after the attack," Siegel shared with the outlet.
"I am going to fight to live. I could have given up, but that’s just not who I am,” Vanderberg, who is now in remission for his myeloma, said.
Two weeks ago, Vanderberg was able to see his son get married.
On Monday, Fox News reported that the number of survivors and first responders who died from exposure to toxins from that day exceeds the death toll of those who died in the crashes — approximately 4,343 deaths as of 2022, per the World Trade Center Health Program.
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