9/11 responder who testified with Jon Stewart moved to hospice care

A 9/11 first responder who testified alongside comedian Jon Stewart during an emotional House Judiciary Committee hearing last week said he is now in hospice care.

Lou Alvarez wrote on Facebook that he was placed in hospice care a day after his trip to Capitol Hill, where he advocated for a bill to extend funding for 9/11 first responders.

“I’m now in hospice,” Alvarez wrote, adding that there is “nothing else the doctors can do to fight the cancer. It had nothing to do with my trip to DC, that was just coincidence.”{mosads}

Alvarez said he was scheduled for chemo the day after his trip to Washington, D.C., and the nurse noticed he was “disoriented.” He later found out his liver had stopped filtering out toxins because of his tumor and his body was filling up with ammonia, he said.

The retired NYPD detective said he is now resting and at peace and will continue to highlight the effort to secure 9/11 first responder benefits that “we all justly deserve.”

Stewart blasted members of Congress during the hearing last week, calling it “shameful” that first responders had made the trip for a hearing that was sparsely attended by lawmakers.

The comedian ridiculed lawmakers for not acting promptly for heroes that he said are now “sick and dying.”

“It would be one thing if their callous indifference and rank hypocrisy were benign, but it’s not,” Stewart said. “Your indifference costs these men and women their most valuable commodity: time. It’s the one thing they’re running out of.”

The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund bill passed through the House Judiciary Committee last week, sending it to the full House for a vote.

Stewart continued his push to expand funding for first responders through 2090 while condemning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week.

Stewart argued that McConnell has spent years holding up the funding and has used it as a bargaining chip. 

McConnell denied Stewart’s accusations and said Tuesday that “we’ve never let the 9/11 victims behind, and we won’t again.” 

The bill is also gaining support in the Senate with 45 co-sponsors, including 11 Republicans.