Lt. Carl Bedigian, 35, was an electrician with the Transit Authority for a dozen years before joining the FDNY. He was assigned to Engine Company 214 which shares “The Nuthouse” with Ladder 111 in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
Several years earlier Bedigian had learned he was a match and donated his bone marrow to a 4-year-old boy in Europe who had leukemia, saving the boy’s life.
In the FDNY for seven years, he had to reapply and requalify after contracting a virus that attacked his spinal cord and left him temporarily paralyzed. With sheer will and determination he was walking again within weeks, but the incident heightened his appreciation for life. On 9/11, he had been married less than a year.