FDNY honors Manhattan EMT whose HIV death changed pension benefits for line-of-duty deaths

Tracy Allen Lee was just 17 months on the job as an emergency medical technician with the FDNY when she suffered a chance injury on November 1, 1989.

Allen Lee and her partner had responded to reports of a stabbing at a hotel shelter for male AIDS patients.  While the EMS team was moving the patient, a protruding wall nail tore through Allen Lee’s surgical glove, cutting her thumb and allowing the sick patient’s blood to mix with her own.  Five years later, Allen Lee checked into a hospital with a respiratory infection and learned that she had an HIV infection from the patient.

Allen Lee fought the illness but her condition worsened and on Sept. 23, 1997, she died at age 34.  Officials said she was the first EMT in the city and the country to die from HIV while after treating an infected patient.

On Friday, the FDNY held a special memorial service for Allen Lee in Manhattan to not only commemorate her life but also to recognize her effort in getting a change in New York State law which allows paramedics and EMT automatic three-quarters line of duty pensions for blood-borne illnesses like HIV.

Officials said Allen Lee fought hard when she was still alive to change pension law for herself and other EMTs facing the same situation. At her funeral, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani granted her the line-of-duty pension.

“Allen Lee’s story is one of heroism, of dedication, of service and of activism,” acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at the service on the 25th anniversary of her death. “That she continued to fight for the benefits while she was sick shows the kind of tenacity and persistence she displayed in her entire career. It is that tenacity and persistence that turned the sadness of her death to the protection that her co-workers still have this day."

Kavanagh noted that each year, a medal is given in Allen Lee's name for bravery to members of EMS who show the same kind of tenacity, bravery and persistence she showed.

Allen Lee’s husband Victor, of New Jersey, attended the service, as did her sister Robin of New York City and a few other family friends.  A plaque commemorating Allen Lee had been unveiled earlier in her honor by the flagpole in the parking lot of EMS Station 10 in Manhattan.

One of Allen Lee’s co-workers, retired EMS chief Jackie Sullivan of Westchester, remembered her as being vibrant and dedicated to helping others. Sullivan, who was also at the stabbing scene where Allen Lee was working, said the bloody incident caused immediate concern because of the specter of HIV.

“She suffered before she passed away,” Sullivan remembered.

Sullivan said Allen Lee’s effort to change the pension law had a major impact, to the benefit of EMS workers. “The impact all these years later is that we are covered for these injuries, exposures,” Sullivan said.  “We knew her condition could be our condition down the road.”

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.