A woman who survived both terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is now battling a rare autoimmune disorder that she says feels like her body is “burning itself from the inside out.”
Jenn Ashcraft, 60, says painful memories from the tragedies continue to haunt her as she remains confined to a hospital bed in Arizona.
“There are some memories that are too difficult to speak about,” Ashcraft said. “This has been a freight train that came.”
Ashcraft survived the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, when a truck bomb exploded beneath the North Tower in New York City.
“We felt the impact. I literally felt my flesh move from my skeletal being,” she recalled.
She was also present during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“I was walking toward the towers. I saw the first plane hit,” Ashcraft said.
After relocating to Prescott, Arizona, she began volunteering with the American Red Cross as part of her healing process.
“It was a way for me to heal and to honor all of those firefighters that lost their lives,” she said.
During her volunteer work, she met her husband, Tom Ashcraft, whose son was among the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots killed while battling the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.
Ashcraft said she has struggled with health complications for decades, but her condition worsened dramatically in recent weeks.
“My cuticles started bleeding. My skin developed some type of attack, and now my antibodies are basically attacking my body,” she said.
Doctors later diagnosed her with an autoimmune disorder.
“My chest, my back, my face, my arms, my legs — it’s just very painful,” Ashcraft said. “They started giving me antibody replacement, which they’re trying to save my life.”
The World Trade Center Health Program, which supports survivors and first responders suffering from illnesses linked to 9/11, does not currently classify autoimmune diseases as covered conditions, although petitions have recently been submitted seeking to add them.
“I want to help other survivors,” Ashcraft said.
She added that she hopes her story sheds light on the long-term health struggles many survivors continue to endure years after the tragedies.
