One thing a police officer learns early in his career is to call for back up when he is in trouble. For disabled cop Larry Hilsdorf and his family, the call is going out all over Bayside.
Without fanfare, handbills have been appearing in taverns and restaurants announcing a benefit for Hilsdorf and his kin, on Saturday, March 21 at 8 p.m. in the Sacred Heart Church Hall, located at 216th Street and 38th Avenue.
Hilsdorf’s health has been failing since early 1995, when the 38-year-old member of the NYPD Queens North Task Force had a heart attack. Since then, a cascade of health problems have presented themselves almost yearly.
Once a burly 250 pounds, today, he’s wracked with rheumatoid arthritis and weighs barely 140 pounds, after cancer in the lung, esophagus and colon left him with surgical wounds that won’t heal. He needs another surgery.
Even with his police pension and health benefits, the co pay on a single recent prescription was reportedly $1,200 and Social Security has been denying benefits for over 12 years.
Hilsdorf’s wife Maureen, a longtime volunteer at Sacred Heart, has been working at Flushing Savings Bank to help ends meet, in addition to taking care of him, her live-in 87-year-old father and being a mom to five children.
For a $25 admission, attendees at the Hilsdorf Family Benefit can enjoy some refreshments, buy some raffle tickets and help cover some of the medical expenses of the 19-year NYPD veteran and his kin.
