Bronx Army Vet gives cheer for VA change

Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan wars reflect on coming home to NYC and transition to civilian life
Bronx Army vet says more aid available now from Veterans Administration

BY CORINNE LESTCH
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, January 10 2012

COUTTESY OF SANDRA ROLON
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Sandra Rolon flies to Qatar in April 2009, during her second Iraq deployment, for some R and R

When Sandra Rolon came home to the Bronx from her first U.S. Army deployment in Iraq in 2005, she was desolate and despondent.

The Mott Haven native was left homeless with two daughters to raise, and there were few services.

“I went to one or two meetings for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” she said. “There wasn’t anything at all.”

When she returned after her second round of duty--during which she helped close down the Camp Bucca detention facility in 2009--everything had changed.

“I got a call from the (James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx) the same day my orders ended,” said Rolon, 53. “They were directly calling all these soldiers, letting them know, ‘you have five years of medical coverage if you want to exercise that benefit.’”

Now, Rolon helps lead Military Women in Power, which operates out of the Bronx VA hsopital, and she said there has been a surge of interest in the group since the last troops returned to American soil in December.

“Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island are taking care of their people, but in the Bronx, I don’t see it,” she said. “I’ve had to go outside of the Bronx to seek assistance.”

That’s a perception the Bronx VA is trying to change with new programs and outreach efforts as it anticipates serving about 4,000 to 6,000 returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, said Jim Connell, director of community and government relations.

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Sept. 11 responder gets help at University Community Hospital

Sept. 11 responder gets help at University Community Hospital
Tampabay.com - St. Petersburg,FL,USA

By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
TAMPA — The Bronx cop was watching the morning news when United Airlines flight 175 exploded into the second tower of the World Trade Center.

"I have to go," Ivan Castrillo told his wife.

The police van headed into ground zero. The tower had just collapsed. Papers rained from the sky. Survivors wandered, dazed.

"It's like you left a city as you knew it," Castrillo remembers, "and entered a different world."

An eerie quiet blanketed lower Manhattan, along with a blizzard of grey ash — a cocktail of cement dust, glass fibers, asbestos, pesticides, lead and other dangerous material.

Castrillo breathed it in.

So did more than 91,000 others. In 2001, they had no idea of what it would do to their bodies.

A Tampa Bay area hospital is now part of a national effort to assess and treat the damage.
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2 Surrender in Bronx Beating of Boston-Area Radio Host

2 Surrender in Bronx Beating of Boston-Area Radio Host
By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: September 22, 2008
The police said Monday that they had arrested both suspects in the baseball-bat beating of a Massachusetts radio talk-show host last week in the Bronx.
The first suspect turned himself in on Sunday night, while the second, who was believed to have wielded the bat in the Sept. 14 attack, turned himself in on Monday afternoon.

The first suspect was identified as Gavin Scott, 20, of 762 East 211th Street in the Bronx. The second suspect was identified as Jamal Roman, 26, of 722 East 216th Street .

The police said Mr. Roman was believed to have struck the victim, Pelagio De La Cruz, 52, in the head repeatedly with the bat in the attack, which was captured on video. Mr. Scott is believed to be the suspect seen rifling the victim’s pockets after the attack, the police said.

Both men were charged with attempted murder, assault, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, the police said.

Mr. De La Cruz, who works for WESX-AM, a Spanish-language station in the Boston area, was in the Bronx visiting his children, who live with their mother on Davidson Avenue in University Heights, the police said. He was attacked at about 3:30 a.m. while trying to enter the building.
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Donnette Sanz's infant son dies in hospital

Baby of pregnant woman hit by runaway van dies
Story Highlights
Baby born by Caesarean section after mom died in accident

Mother was a New York traffic agent

Baby's dad: "She never got to see our baby, but she was in love with him"

NEW YORK (AP) -- An infant boy delivered prematurely after his traffic agent mother was struck by a van and pinned under a bus has died, authorities said Friday.

Sean Michael Justin Sanz had been in intensive care since he was delivered by Caesarean section shortly after a runaway van hit his mother August 14. He weighed 3 pounds, 6 ounces at birth.

His mother, traffic agent Donnette Sanz, survived the delivery but died about an hour later in an emergency operating room. She was seven months pregnant.

The van, driven by a 72-year-old man with what authorities say is a long history of driving offenses, hit Sanz when she was crossing a Bronx street on her lunch break. The impact sent her flying into the path of a yellow school bus, which ran her over.

About 30 bystanders helped hoist the 5-ton bus from her body in a rescue that made the front pages of the city's tabloid newspapers.

"He meant everything to me," Rafael Sanz said of his tiny son. "He died in my arms."

Sanz had harsh words for the van's driver, Walter Walker: "I hope he really does rot in hell. I hope he dies a horrible death."

In an interview with the Daily News published hours before the infant's death, Rafael Sanz spoke about how his deep love for his son was mingled with grief over his wife's death. He said she had donated a kidney to him shortly before their wedding four years ago.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/22/pregnant.agent.runover.ap/index.html

NYC heroes lift bus off pregnant woman; baby lives

NYC heroes lift bus off pregnant woman; baby lives
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer

Friday, August 15, 2008


(08-15) 14:59 PDT New York (AP) --

Dozens of strangers converged from all directions to lift a 5-ton bus off the body of a pregnant woman Friday — a superhuman effort that managed to save the life of her child but was too late for her.


Seven months pregnant, Donnette Sanz was crossing one of the busiest intersections in the Bronx on her lunch break when she was struck by a van whose brakes failed. The impact sent the 33-year-old NYPD traffic agent flying into the path of a yellow school bus and pinned her underneath.

About 30 people helped lift the bus, and Sanz was rushed to a hospital, where doctors delivered her boy by Caesarean section. The 3-pound, 6-ounce infant, named Sean Michael, was in critical condition Friday but showing signs of improvement.

"This is such an unbelievable tragedy that took place; it took away one of our own," said James Huntley, president of the union that represents traffic agents. "But I'm so thankful to the city of New York and to the citizens who came to her aid, like real heroes out of a comic book."

Mourners and neighborhood residents gathered outside the hospital to pray for Sanz and her child.
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In a Bronx Funeral Parlor, a Veteran’s War Memorial

Joseph Garofalo, a World War II veteran, persuaded John Dormi & Sons Funeral Home to display his collection.

In a Bronx Funeral Parlor, a Veteran’s War Memorial

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
Published: June 10, 2008

The old marine was back on duty Thursday, standing guard over a military shrine in the Morris Park section of the Bronx.

Joseph Garofalo, 87, huddled with other veterans near a glass display case filled with dog tags and medals, helmets and hand grenades, and other artifacts from the two world wars, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

For the past three years, the modest exhibit of military service has been on display at a rather unusual location: the John Dormi & Sons Funeral Home.

“I went knocking on a lot of doors to make this happen, to libraries and other local businesses, looking for a proper home for all of these important items,” said Mr. Garofalo, creator and curator of what he calls, perhaps a bit grandly, the Bronx Military Museum. “This was the only place that cared enough about honoring the memory of some of the heroes who fought so bravely for our country.”

Chris DiCostanzo, 60, manages the funeral home and is a Vietnam veteran. He said he gave careful consideration to making Mr. Garofalo’s collection a part of the daily viewings. “Hand grenades,” Mr. DiCostanzo said softly, “are not something that people are used to seeing at a funeral parlor.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/nyregion/10bronx.html?_r=1&oref=slogin