Alcides Moreno - Man who plunged 47 storeys expected to walk again

Alert, watching television and eating, window washer Alcides Moreno is expected to walk again, further stunning the medical team responsible for his recovery after he fell 500 feet from a 47-story Manhattan building last month. Rosario Moreno told her husband’s amazing story to a room full of reporters and television cameras at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, where doctors also chronicled his recovery. So far, Alcides Moreno, 37, has undergone nine operations — five to his stomach — and faces another three-hour surgery Friday on his spine to help him walk. “This is virtually beyond belief,” said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and chief executive of the hospital. “It’s an astonishing level of recovery. More work has to be done, but we are optimistic.” Dr. Philip Barie, chief of critical care and trauma, said Moreno was given 24 units of blood and 19 units of blood plasma after the fall, when doctors were amazed that there was no excessive bleeding from Moreno’s brain.

The family has health insurance and coverage from workers’ compensation, but the bill, Pardes said, will run into the millions. “The hospital will try to be supportive, and we hope to protect the family from financially hurting,” he said.

Source: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=44309&sid=6&fid=1