Window washer who fell 47 floors likely to walk again says stunned doctor

amd_washer.jpg

amd_moreno.jpg


He fell 47 stories, breaking his ribs and right arm, shattering both legs and injuring his spine.

He needed 24 units of blood, had a catheter inserted into his brain and underwent at least 14 operations in the 28 days since his Dec. 7 plunge.

He was in a coma for weeks after the horrifying 500-foot fall that killed his brother, but window washer Alcides Moreno is awake, talking and likely to walk again, his doctors said Thursday.

"If you're a believer in miracles, this would be one," said Dr. Philip Barie, chief of critical care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.

"I've seen it all - or at least I think I have - until something like this happens."

Moreno, 37, was washing the windows of the Solow Residences on E. 66th St. with his brother, Edgar, when cables connecting their 16-foot-long aluminum swing to the roof failed and they plummeted to the ground.

Neither man was wearing a safety harness and Edgar, 30, died when he landed on a wooden fence.

Against all the odds, Alcides Moreno survived and gave his wife, Rosario, the best present she could wish for when he spoke for the first time on Christmas Day.

"I've been touching him and he wanted to touch my face, my ear," she said.

"Apparently, he tried to do it to one of the nurses and once they left the room, I said 'You're not supposed to do that. You touch your wife, you're not supposed to touch the nurses.

"Then he said, 'What did I do?' ... I was stunned."

Rosario wiped away tears as she praised the medical staff who brought her husband, who is from Ecuador, back from the brink of death.

"They have never given up," she said. "If he would have been anywhere else, he probably wouldn't have made it."

Doctors described how dozens of trauma experts rushed to Moreno's bedside and a "highly practiced, highly organized form of controlled chaos" went into action.

"He had injuries of his brain, his spinal column, his chest, his abdomen," Barie said.

"And multiple fractures involving his ribs, right arm and both legs."

Moreno was evaluated for 24 hours, given 24 units of blood, 19 units of plasma and had the catheter inserted into his brain to reduce pressure and swelling.

He then underwent nine orthopedic procedures, five abdomen operations and a tracheotomy, doctors said.

"We are very pleased and, dare I say, astonished, at the level of recovery," Barie said.

Moreno told his wife Tuesday night he instinctively knew his brother did not survive the fall.

"He already knew," she said. "Not a tear came down, he was very strong about that, too. They were together every day, they were very close."

But the reunion with the Morenos' three children, Michael, 14, Mariah, 8, and Andrew, 6, brought him to tears.

"Andrew looks like [Alcides'] brother. He saw [Andrew] and he became all teary."

"I miss you," Andrew told his dad.

"I miss you more," Moreno replied before turning his head away to hide his emotions.

Rosario believes her husband's healthy living and belief in God pulled him through.

"He keeps telling me that it just wasn't his time," she said. "God knows when it's his time, and it wasn't his time."

The couple's Christmas presents to each other remain unopened and Moreno, who had been washing windows for 13 years, will undergo further surgery today to stabilize his spine.

He faces at least a year of rehabilitation, at least one more surgery and medical bills costing millions, doctors said.

The family plans to sue the building owner, building manager and the companies who installed the scaffold rigging.

"I'm still in awe, I'm still in shock," Rosario Moreno said. "I'm grateful, that's all I can say."
 
Top