9/11 Worker Pleads For Medical Coverage With Billboards: 'How Much Sicker Do I Have To Get?'

WEST MILFORD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A New Jersey man who spent three weeks looking for survivors in the days after the 9/11 attacks is using billboards in a push to have his kidney disease added to the list of covered conditions by a fund to help Ground Zero workers with health problems.

Mike Megna has a rare kidney disease he believes was caused by dust from the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center towers.

The 44-year-old West Milford resident has rented two billboards in New Jersey near New York City that plead, "Add Kidney Disease for 9/11 Rescue Workers!" The signs include Megna's name and picture.

"In 2007, I started urinating blood. It was determined I had a kidney disease. What's happening to my body is my bone marrow is producing some sort of carcinogen. My kidneys are at 45 percent and failing," he said in a video posted to his website.

He said he has been waiting eight years for his disease to be certified.

"How much sicker do I have to get?" he asked.

Megna told WCBS 880's Stephanie Colombini he owes years of lost income and could lose his West Milford home. 

"I owe $120,000, $130... I don't even know any more but it's up there," he said.

A spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which administers the fund, says there's not enough evidence yet to connect the condition to Ground Zero.

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