WASHINGTON (AP) – A day after his father’s death, the grief-stricken son of a Sept. 11 police officer said Wednesday he wants to meet with President Bush to describe his father’s sacrifice and the health needs of other sick ground zero workers.

Ceasar Borja Jr. attended the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night just hours after learning his father had died from lung problems.

“I want a meeting with the president to make the case directly about how important these health programs are,” Borja told The Associated Press.

“I want him to hear from me, how my father died a hero last night, and there are many heroes that will and are continuing to die because they’re not given the proper medical attention or not given enough help from the federal government,” said the 21-year-old college student, his voice breaking with emotion.

After getting the awful news that his father had died, the son had insisted on going ahead and attending the president’s speech to honor his father and draw attention to the issue of Sept. 11-related health problems.

He had been invited by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a longtime advocate for Sept. 11 health issues.

“I need to be strong, and I am just doing my best,” Borja said. The family was beginning to prepare for a weekend funeral.

His father, 52-year-old Cesar Borja, was a 20-year veteran of the NYPD who died Tuesday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York while awaiting a lung transplant.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the officer’s case was tragic.

“But money was not an issue here, nor was the quality of health care,” Bloomberg said. “It’s sad that he just didn’t live long enough to get a lung transplant, and it’s not clear if he had, whether the lung transplant would have worked.”

Though the son had originally planned to fly back to New York to be with his family Wednesday, he said he will stay in Washington a while longer in the hopes of getting a chance to speak to Bush.

“Now I represent all of these things that are bigger than me or my family or my father,” Borja said. “I can do this because sooner or later I will be again a normal, hardworking middle class boy in New York City working at Starbucks and going to Hunter College.”

A White House spokesman expressed his condolences over the father’s death.

“We extend our condolences to Mr. Borja and his family at this difficult time,” spokesman Alex Conant said. “The president is committed to supporting first responders who assisted with the recovery effort in New York City.”

Asked specifically if Bush or his staff would meet with Borja, Conant said there was nothing on the president’s schedule “right now.”

Borja’s father’s case is the latest to draw attention to those who have fallen ill after exposure to the toxic debris pile of the World Trade Center site in 2001.

Clinton called the death a “terrible tragedy.”

The son, she said, “is a courageous and remarkable young man. His sense of duty to his father and to the mission that brought him to Washington is inspiring and heartbreaking.”

One of those who was with Borja as he heard of his father’s death said the son was “just devastated.”

“He’s worried about his mother, but he’s also proud that he represented his father and New York City, and the 9/11 people that are being ignored,” said Marvin Bethea, a former paramedic who has also gotten sick since responding to the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Earlier Tuesday, before his father died, Borja had made a public plea for those whose lives are threatened by their exposure at ground zero, saying that “9/11 is not over.”

“It didn’t end in 2001. It is still affecting my father and numerous other first responders,” he said. “My father is an extreme example of what can happen and what may and will happen in the future.”

Clinton and other New York lawmakers have been urging the government for years to pay for treating Sept. 11-related illnesses.

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Associated Press writer Sara Kugler in New York contributed to this report.