Scott Strauss still cannot bring himself to replace the watch he lost at Ground Zero.
The former NYPD Emergency Service Unit detective, who spent September 11, 2001 crawling through rubble with bare hands to rescue two trapped Port Authority officers, has gone 25 years without wearing a timepiece. He glances at other people’s watches, at computer screens, at television displays instead. The habit is one he refuses to break.
Strauss, now vice president of Security & Support Systems for Northwell Health, was part of the team that pulled rookie Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin from 30 feet of debris. The rescue took 14 hours for Jimeno and 22 hours for McLoughlin. They became two of only 20 people saved from the fallen towers.
“I haven’t worn a watch since I lost it at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001,” Strauss wrote in a first-person account. “That day has given me other ways to mark time — remembrances, family milestones and the continued loss of too many friends.”
The losses keep accumulating. Strauss lost 14 friends on the day itself. The death toll from certified 9/11-related illnesses has since surpassed the immediate fatalities of the attacks. Physicians at the World Trade Center Health Program, where Strauss is a patient, have diagnosed, treated and monitored more than 50,000 patients for conditions still unfolding.
“Sometimes I marvel at not having lost even more friends on Sept. 11 — and struggle with the eventual deaths that day set in motion,” he wrote. “They’re ongoing, because people who worked at Ground Zero have been developing cancers and chronic illnesses from the toxic dust and debris at the site.”
Strauss has undergone major surgical repairs to his trachea, both bronchial tubes and his sinuses. He had a bout of skin cancer. A chronic cough developed years ago still worries his family. He carries inhalers now.
“Everything from respiratory conditions, sleep disorders, and mental health challenges, to more than 16 categories of cancer have led us to a new, painful statistic: the cumulative death toll from certified 9/11-related illnesses now surpasses the immediate number of fatalities of Sept. 11,” he wrote.
Despite his own ailments, Strauss counts himself among the fortunate. He watched his two sons grow up, marry and follow him into the same police unit where he worked. He felt joy when the daughter of a friend killed on 9/11 brought her infant son to a remembrance event. The baby, the same age as one of Strauss’s two grandchildren, will never meet his grandfather.
“That makes me one of the lucky ones. I recognize how fortunate I am even when my gratitude for the time I’ve had becomes murky,” Strauss wrote. “It has come with the responsibility and honor of carrying the memory of those who died that day, offset by anger I still feel toward the terrorists who carried out the attacks.”
The rescue forged an unbreakable bond between Strauss and Jimeno, who has written a book about his own emotional and physical challenges. During one conversation about the rescue, they discovered details each had forgotten or never known. Only recently did Jimeno learn that Strauss lost his Timex during the hours they fought together underground.
Not long after that conversation with Jimeno and his wife Allison — who was seven months pregnant during the rescue — a package arrived at Strauss’s door. The Jimeno family had sent a new Timex with a note.
“You should have said it was a Rolex,” it read.
“Maybe one day I’ll wear it,” Strauss wrote. “For now, I’m grateful for the time.”
