Fidelity Bank Breakfast Series - John Feal: FealGood Foundation

Fidelity Bank Breakfast
 
Guest speaker:
John Feal - FealGood Foundation
          9/11 First Responder and Advocate
 
 
In 2001 John Feal was a 34 year-old US Army veteran and demolition supervisor.  On the days after the terrorist attacks in New York City, John Feal joined what has been called an ?army of blue-collar workers? who were all converging upon the smoldering wreckage that was the World Trade Center.  Feal, like thousands of other responders took part in what is said to be ?the largest recovery operation in American History?. Several days after 9/11, John Feal reported experiencing serious respiratory problems, a condition that is now notoriously known as the ?WTC Cough?.  Six days after the attacks, on September 17th, an eight ton steel beam crushed John Feal?s foot, during what he calls a ?frenzied, dangerous cleanup?.  He lost half of his foot and spent eleven weeks in the hospital where he suffered from gangrene and nearly died.  
 
John battled with a host of health costs after being denied any benefits due to what he calls an ?arbitrary exclusion in the law?he and many other workers who were injured during a 2-week window at Ground Zero did not qualify for the 9/11 Relief Fund?. 
 
In the wake of September 11th and the Ground Zero cleanup and gradual rehabilitation John Feal established the non-profit organization, the FealGood Foundation.  The primary mission of the FealGood Foundation is to spread awareness and educate the public about the ?catastrophic health effects on 9/11 first responders?, as well as to provide assistance to ?relieve those great heroes of the financial burdens that have been placed on them over the last five years?.