New York Asbestosis Doctor: Unsung Hero Fights for Miners

In recent news about the dangers of asbestos exposure, a doctor, George Wineburgh, fought for asbestosis-ridden and dying New York miners whose suffering was being ignored by most of the medical community.

For his efforts he was fired from his job and ostracized by doctors in two counties.

Wineburgh practiced at New York City's largest hospital for 16 years before moving with his family up to the peaceful upstate New York. He was eager to start his new job as the radiologist at Ogdensburg's Barton Hepburn Hospital.

It didn't take long before the skills Wineburgh gained becoming a board-certified radiologist started generating questions within the pile of X-rays waiting on his desk each morning. The films were from the patients examined overnight, usually for assorted trauma, aches and pains and heart problems.

Among the cracked ribs, bruised kidneys and clogged arteries, Wineburgh was finding something unexpected: the distinctive shadow of a lung damaged by asbestosis.

"All the clinicians that I asked said, 'Ah, they're just smokers. Yeah, they're miners, but they're all smokers. That's the reason, so we don't mess with them,'" he says.

Wineburgh was sure that what he was seeing was asbestosis. He was uncomfortable about what was going on.

Then Wineburgh sent the 50 cases to the state health department.

About 22,000 films of 9,442 patients were examined. Wineburgh and his team found chest abnormalities in 500 patients. Those X-rays were evaluated by what the health department called "an internationally recognized" expert.

71 percent of the X-rays of Wineburgh's 500 "were indeed consistent with chest abnormalities indicative of asbestos exposure," says Dr. Edward Fitzgerald, who co-wrote the state's report and is assistant director of the bureau of environmental and occupational epidemiology.

Thomas DiCerbo, the associate director of the New York's Division of Occupational Health, said the state "jumped in immediately."

For his efforts, Wineburgh lost his job. "Finding those sick New York miners changed my life." he says. "I'm a lot poorer now. I have to work a lot harder then I should at my age. Would I stick my neck out again for those guys? Of course. That's how medicine should be practiced."

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