CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49
brother.”
Plumstead called Cirella a fantastic cop who dedicated himself
to the police= officers
and citizens
of= Madison
for
than 25
=
=
=
=
=
= more
=
=
years. Plumstead
said
without
at work
in
=
=
=
=
= Cirella
=
=
= the
= department
= =
there is a=huge
= loss to the force
=
=because
= his
= experience
= = is invalu=
able.=
=
“Joe’s =a tough= guy,” he
He’s not =going to
= added. “He’s
=
= a fighter.
=
= We’re all behind
=
= him= 100 percent.
=
=
take this lightly.
He knows
= from
= the
= chief on
= down.”
=
=
=
we’re behind= him
=
=
=
=
=
= family on
In August,
47-year-old
Cirella
had= just taken
his
=
summer vacation.
He said he was feeling great during the trip to
= with
= no= indication
= =
=of sickness
=
= or symptoms.
=
= = One
South Carolina
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
day after his vacation ended, Cirella returned to work in the
=
=
=
=
=
=
= =
department.
He would be diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer on Sept 1.
After returning to work when his vacation ended, Cirella came
home and said he felt very tired, but attributed it to being on
vacation and getting back into the groove of working. Later that
week, Cirella said he developed low-grade fevers, which at the
time he attributed to a little bug or possibly sunburn.
The second week home, he noticed the fevers were persisting,
getting worse and the frequency increased. After a barbecue at
his home, Cirella said, he felt ill all day afterward.
“I had a pain in my right side, under my rib cage,” he
explained. “I didn’t know if it was gas or a stomach ache but I
woke up the next morning with the same pain.”
That day he went to the hospital because the fever hadn’t
52
NEW JERSEY COPS
■
NOVEMBER 2015
broke and the pain persisted. Further testing identified numerous lesions on his liver. He was admitted to the hospital that
night and, after a colonoscopy was completed, testing identified
=
=
=
=
= =
=
=
=
cancer= in his
and
of
spread
= colon
=
= the
= source
=
= the cancer
= = that
=
=
=to
his liver.
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
After
was
from
= Cirella
=
= released
=
=
=the hospital,
= a =biopsy= of his
liver showed
= = = the= cancer
= as very= aggressive
= = and
= = chemotherapy
=
was started
immediately.
He is undergoing chemotherapy and
=
==
said he will continue looking for additional treatments to fight
the cancer.
Cirella said he had never taken any medicine in his life other
than aspirin for a headache.
At this point, the doctors haven’t told him anything specific
about how much time he has left, and Cirella said he is hoping
for the best.
And after 27 years in the police department, the amount of
support from people from the town and other police departments is something he could never have imagined.
“It’s very humbling to say the least,” Cirella said. “I always had
the attitude of never asking for help. I always was just here to
help everyone else.”
Cirella and his wife Amy have three children: Caroline, 15,
Joseph Jr., 12, and his youngest son, 8-year-old Nicholas.
“I think of my three kids who have to go through all of this and
I just wish I could go through it all myself,” he said. “There are
times I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if this was
all a bad dream. I wake up and realize it’s not.” d