An NYPD officer died Friday from what is suspected to be 9/11-related cancer.
Officer Dave Guevara went into the hospital two weeks ago for what was first believed to be pneumonia before doctors found a large mass on his lungs, according to The New York Daily News.
The 23-year veteran of the force died two days after the diagnosis from kidney failure.
The officer's widow, Lakisha Guevara, said that while her husband didn't respond to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he worked many hours doing the recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
"It certainly changed the way he perceived things," she told the newspaper. "It’s a horror when you have to see people or even have to think you’re digging for people who have not made it in such a catastrophic way. It’s overwhelming."
She said that her husband was healthy and never smoked and believes that he died as a result of the toxic exposure.
"His death happened so suddenly, within two and a half weeks," she said. "He deteriorated to a point where most of his organs failed, and it was one thing after another where every day I would go to the hospital and the doctor told me something else failed."
Guevara was contemplating retiring in September.
He leaves behind his wife, and a son and daughter, ages 14 and 20.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
