I am a sixty-two-year-old woman who has spent the last ten years dedicating my life to helping survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. My own son was a twenty-seven-year-old Metropolitan Police Officer with six outstanding years on the Department in Washington, D.C. when he was murdered in cold blood as he sat in a marked cruiser, waiting for a stop light to change. I made the decision that the only way to help myself was to begin helping others who were going through the same pain I’d gone through. I prepared myself to be of service, never realizing that a terrorist attack would occur in 2001. When the World Trade Center was attacked, I was asked to come with our Critical Incident Stress Management Team to New York to do whatever could be done to help. I readily agreed and arrived on September 22, 2001. We were given paper masks and taken to the site. The fires were still burning in the giant heaps of debris that had so recently been two of the most powerful structures in the world. We worked there most days for sixteen to eighteen hours, bringing water, food, and whatever else was needed. Mostly I sat and listened to the rescue workers talk when they stopped to rest, simply because they needed someone to listen to them.

It never crossed my mind that being there would be harmful, but a couple of years later I began having respiratory problems that my doctors diagnosed as bronchitis, or asthma. The symptoms occurred more frequently, and I began having bouts of pneumonia as well. I was prescribed steroids, anti-depressants, painkillers, antibiotics, blood pressure medication, and finally, oxygen twenty-four hours a day. I was afraid to sleep without oxygen, because I was told that it was possible that I might stop breathing while I slept.

Some friends of mine in law enforcement knew about the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, and without my knowledge, sought to see if this might be an option for me. I came to the New York Center for the first time in March 2008. I had my portable oxygen tank with me, and could not walk more than 20 feet without stopping to get enough air in my lungs to keep going. The doctor at the Center began a tapering down schedule to get me off the steroids that were literally killing me, and I was given vitamins to take back home. When I completed the treatment program, the results were absolutely unbelievable! I am no longer on any medications. When I arrived here, I was able to manage three minutes on the treadmill, now I do twenty minutes each day. I haven’t needed oxygen at all since the first week I was here, and walk back and forth from the Center without even breathing hard.

Your generous sponsorship has helped me to have my life back and the chance to enjoy my family and friends once more. I came here doubtful that anything could help me, and I am now a BELIEVER ! My family and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping give me back my life.

Hugs,
Shirley Gibson.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................NEXT