Mike Megna has taken out billboards outside MetLife Stadium, by the Holland Tunnel and on New York buses. They read, “Add Kidney Disease for 9/11 Rescue Workers!” Kidney disease is currently not covered by the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act of 2010.
Megna suffers from atypical anti-glomerular basement membrane nephritis, a kidney disease so rare that only about 20 people worldwide have it, reports Lindy Washburn in The Record.
Megna spent several weeks working at the World Trade Center site as a Pompton Lakes police officer. He is no longer a police officer after being indicted and pleading guilty to hindering the prosecution of an undercover drug investigation. He was sentenced in 2008 to a form of probation.
He received some money from the Victim Compensation Fund for respiratory and digestive ailments, not for the kidney disease. He can reapply if kidney disease becomes a listed illness with the fund.
