News about the effect of Sept. 11 came as no surprise to Ilona Kloupte, a Battery Park city resident who has been traumatized since her home was inundated with debris on Sept. 11.
“I have definitely been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said. “I’m on medication. I have uncontrollable twitching, especially in my cheek, and I’ve been suffering from panic attacks.”
Kloupte, who is on the anti-depressant, Zoloft, still breaks down in tears when she recalls her visit to ground zero four days after the attack and how she witnessed a partial structure collapse that injured several firefighters.
“I remember grabbing a stretcher as they carried one of them past me and saying ‘Live, please live!'” she said.
Kloupte said her memories of the attack are not the only thing causing her stress.
She has been wheezing and coughing from the debris in her home, which is packed with asbestos. Mark Stamey and Todd Venezia