Surviving 911 But Suffering To This Day

MY9TV.com - We've heard so many stories about those who were killed on 9-11.
Many did survive, but are still suffering to this day.
Brenda Flanagan met with one man who reflects on emotional trauma of the attack every day.

Every week, relentless grief draws George Mironis back to Ground Zero ... like a moth to a flame. Every week, he lights a candle -- to honor the dead...reads 38 names ...

Mironis reads: "Robert Duboise, Kenny Gonzales...David Ortiz"

Those 38 people? -- George's friends and co-workers -- at a Japanese bank about 50 floors up in the North Tower. They died on 9/11, but George escaped the burning tower. A decade later, he still cannot escape the memory ...

"How do you feel now that you lit the candle? Great. I feel great. But you have to come back every week -- in order to keep going?
Yes...But it's emotional. It is. You know?"

Back in his quiet North Bergen home, George calls up vivid memories -- the floor rocking beneath his feet -- the low rumble growing to a roar. Post traumatic stress makes George relive his 9/11 nightmare -- over and over.

He says: "I have anxiety -- I snap sometimes, all of a sudden.  Noise. It bothers me. People screaming, the fighting .."

He can't forget the showers of jagged glass -- and falling bodies -- the towers collapsing -- in clouds of toxic dust.

"You haven't left this behind at all. no. no.This is with you all the time."

Even ten years later, he trembles when subway trains rumble by beneath the sidewalk... The sound of sirens makes his heart pound ...

"It was subway - underneath the building - and it was vibrating.  What I heard that day - the building coming down -- collapsing? Exactly the same sound."

George's family has urged him to "move on" -- but he admits -- that makes him feel guilty.

He says: "Like I still see my friends around, and my co-workers - They're still w me. Still with you"?

 A recent study by NYC's Dept of Health shows 15 percent of 9/11 survivors suffer from chronic post traumatic stress disorder -- and calls it "extremely debilitating ... " George says -- he's weary of the pain.

he says: ".. to see somebody about this. Now - I feel it now. I did go
2 weeks ago to a professional in NYC."

George says he wants to heal. Finally -- after a decade of hurt -- he's reaching out
for counselling. In Weehawkin Brenda Flanagan, The 10 O'Clock News.