Posted on 06/04/2004 7:57:33 AM PDT by Hillary's Lovely Legs
A 32-year-old West Side woman brutally injured in the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been awarded $8.6 million by the federal Victim Compensation Fund, the largest payment under the program so far.
Deborah Mardenfeld, a human resources executive at American Express, was walking on Vesey St. shortly after 9 a.m. when she was crushed by debris falling from the second plane that slammed into the World Trade Center.
"I had just left the subway, I was in the underground mall and a man told us to go out onto the street," she told the Daily News.
"I looked up, I saw the second plane hit, I heard someone scream 'Run' and I ran, and that's the last thing I remember," she said.
Her ordeal is beyond agonizing.
Mardenfeld almost bled to death that day and needed an immediate transfusion of 31 pints of blood.
Her buttocks were sliced off, her back was split open, her intestines were punctured and her legs were crushed and fractured, among other injuries.
She spent the next 15 months in hospitals, the first five at NYU Downtown Hospital, and then 10 more months at the Rusk Institute for rehabilitation.
"She had 27 different reconstructive operations and needs 10 more in the future," said attorney Guy Smiley of Manhattan, who represented Mardenfeld for free in her case with the compensation fund.
Smiley said the $8.6 million award was split into $4 million for pain and suffering and $4.6 million for medical costs, care she will need for the rest of her life and loss of income.
"I would give every penny back to change what happened," Mardenfeld said.
Sometimes she can walk for very short distances with a walker, but she must use a wheelchair even to get to a car.
All the while, her fiancé, Gregory St. John, a microbiologist and immunologist, has stayed by her side.
"He's an amazing person," she said. "We plan to get married, we love each other, we support each other, but right now my recovery is the focus of my life."
Mardenfeld would like to go back to work some day. She has a master's degree in human resources management.
"I have hopes of returning to a normal life but I can't look past this year," she said. "I look at it day by day and try to make the most of my recovery. I still believe in all the possibilities of what my life can be."
The Victim Compensation Fund has issued awards for 2,569 injury claims. Payments have ranged from a low of $500 to Mardenfeld's award.
For those who died, the fund has offered awards for 5,162 claimants, generally relatives, and the average payment has been $2.1 million.
If my math is correct, lost income over 2.75 years since 9-11, comes to $1.4 million a year salary? Does any NBA player make that much?
AmEx pays their people pretty good.
< /sarcasm>
Lost income figures into the future, also, including interest.
Would you change places with her for $100 million?
Are you kidding? You must not follow the NBA very closely. Probably two thirds of NBA players are making that.
Hell, A-rod makes that much per strikeout.
And Michael Jordan, in his last year with the Chicago Bulls, had a salary of $33 million and endorsements worth $35 million.
So no, NBA players don't make that kind of money. They make much, much more.
There are apparently too many dollars in the world.
That would be a big n-o right there.
I don't begrudge her the award, but it still disturbs me that our Iraqi injured get little or nothing for their terrible injuries. Life just isn't fair.
Pat Tillman's family probably only got $100K!
I feel very sorry for this poor woman that was a victim of the evildoers. However, I would also think that she had insurance that would be covering her medical costs. I hear of tragedy happening every day and the victims don't end up getting federal aid.
Let her change lpaces with one of the Marines in Walter Reed - for a helluva lot less.
Considering the $369 million that was awarded by a jury yesterday to an SUV driver involved in a rollover accident....this 9-11 victim was "undercompensated".....
That makes a little better sense, then.
and for the record, I agree completely that our soldiers (wounded or not) are grossly underpaid for the job they do for us.
Yuo're JOKING! Is there a link?
On second thought, better not - my BP is manageable, right now...
That, my FRiend, is an 8.6 on the No-Sh!t-o-Meter...
And that's the most that the Tillman's can ever expect, I'm afraid...
I wish it was a joke.... http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2608295
Yea, it isn't so bad, particularly if she was very very injured which it sounds like she was. Jury awards are often downright loopy but a commission like this is likely to do a wiser thing in awarding money.
Jurors have a sense that an injured party has somehow won Lotto - its a problem we need to fix.
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